---

In the Last Chapter…

Sarah and Ryan are starting to become an official couple. Sarah suggests that she and Jason can keep fooling around discreetly, but Jason isn’t comfortable and tells her no. Sarah doesn’t take this well, and Rose is reacting weirdly to the two of them getting closer too. It really seems like neither Sarah nor Rose likes the other getting closer to Jason. Spurred on by his sister Hailey, Jason decides to confront Rose with a theory that Rose and Ryan used to date, and maybe that’s why Sarah is being so weird. Rose drops the bombshell that it’s not Ryan she was dating… it was Sarah.

---

I didn’t say anything for a long fucking while. Rose, being Rose, didn’t say anything either. I just sat there, slowly shaking my head in disbelief, probably bug-eyed or something. “Jeez,” I finally said. “So all three of the girls in Quiz Bowl are lesbians, huh?”

Despite everything, Rose openly laughed. “That’s your first takeaway?! You’re so predictable,” she said, finding her stone face again.

“It would really suck if both of us were this unpredictable,” I retorted.

Her face turned to a weirded-out expression. “Yeah, good one. Anyway, no, Sarah is… straight but unsure, I guess. We were a secret. We had a thing over the summer and broke up on good terms. We were fine for a while, and then, around the… well, I know you didn’t do this, but around the time you showed up, we were already starting to get… weird.”

“Why?”

She shrugged. “Sometimes there isn’t a reason,” she admitted. “I think she just realized how straight she was and how she didn’t want to be reminded of her time spent with me.”

“Wait, so are you a lesbian, or are you into guys too?” I asked.

Her gaze turned serious. “Is that really important?”

“Nope, I’m just curious,” I honestly replied.

That was good enough for her. “I, uh, don’t know,” she finally answered. “I’m taking stuff as it happens. I’m just living my life. I don’t need a label on it.” 

“I didn’t expect you to be a hippie,” I joked.

She didn’t laugh. “So once she got more and more serious with Ryan, she got weirder and weirder with me. I think she’s not good at… being exes with someone, you know? She makes things complicated.”

I shifted in place. Yeah, that sure fucking tracked with me. “Did she… want to keep doing stuff with you after breaking up with you? As friends with benefits or whatever.” I asked, knowing the answer would help me navigate my own stupid situation with Sarah.

Rose didn’t get the memo, and scowled. “Fuck sakes,” she muttered, her voice dripping with disappointment. “I’m trying to open my heart out to you, and you’re drooling about whether we had lesbian fun?!”

“No, I didn’t m-”

“I don’t know why I try with you, you fucking weirdo,” she continued, standing up and walking over to the entrace. “I’ll see you at Quiz Bowl, Jason. Don’t try to talk to me.” With that, she exited the room, leaving me alone in the art room. I sighed and remained at the table. Jesus Christ, what a stupid shitshow this all was. 

I sat there gathering the strength to get up when some old bitch coughed loudly at the open doorway. “Who are you?” she demanded.

I raised my head. “Oh. I, uh, came here to get Rose, she was late for some club we do together.”

The old bitch looked around, a sour look on her face. “Well, she’s not here, so please leave my classroom.”

“Yeah, she’s not here,” I agreed, standing up.

***

“Which high-ranking official accidentally started the Iran-Contra Affair when he was discovered shredding top-secret documents?”

Ryan and Rose both hit their buzzers. Ryan got to his first. “That would be Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger,” he replied confidently.

“Ha!” A loud laugh escaped Rose’s lips before Chadwick could even reply. Even though a couple people, myself included, stared at her, she didn’t cover her mouth or even recoil. She just stared at Chadwick expectantly.

“That’s incorrect,” Chadwick replied. “Rose, I assume-”

“Oliver North, yeah,” Rose replied, cool as a cucumber, then turned to Ryan. “But good job knowing your secretaries of defense though. Very helpful.”

Ryan glared back at her. Sarah joined in. I glanced back at the Alternatives table to see Jack watching Candy playing some game on her Nintendo 3DS. Honestly, good for them for disconnecting from these three. 

Chadwick was trying new strategies these days, I guess after seeing that berating us for being dramatic was getting her nowhere. “I agree, it is really impressive,” she added diplomatically, ignoring the drama and trying to compliment him instead. “Which President was known for…”

I tuned out the question as I stared at Rose. She looked back at me, and I expected her to scowl. She met my gaze and did the most unexpected thing ever: she gave me a wink.

That was two winks from Rose in a really short amount of time. Not only that, but this was within an hour, tops, of her “don’t talk to me today” bullshit. What was with her? I probably looked baffled in response, and if Rose’s smile was any indication, she enjoyed that. By the time I tuned back in, the round was over.

“Our score this time around was… 410 points,” Chadwick reported.

“Not the worst thing ever,” Jack noted from the back. “I mean, it’s not great either. It’s good we’re getting the questions we don’t know out of the way before Regionals.”

I paused, and looked at Rose, then Sarah, then Ryan. I felt a giddy sensation take over me as I spoke without thinking. “Yeah, and plus, we really need to learn not to buzz in if we don’t know the answers. We’re costing the team. Wouldn’t you say, Ryan?”

Sarah’s glare could have bore a hole through a mountain. Rose’s face erupted into one of her rare smiles, and Ryan moved his lips around his face before hanging his head in defeat. “You know what, I earned that one,” he admitted. “I was so confident I was right.”

“No, you didn’t ‘earn it,’” Sarah bitterly added, then turned to me. “Maybe try being a good person once in a while.”

“Wow,” Rose chimed in. “Y’know, it’s funny. I didn’t hear you saying the same thing when it was Ryan saying those exact words.”

“Hey Chadwick,” Jack called from the back, “how’s your day going?”

Chadwick laughed at the desperate change of topic. I think she was starting to give up on policing us. Even still, she spoke. “Do I need to be worried that you’ll all be sharing a bus to Regionals next week?”

“Wow, I forgot it was that soon,” Candy murmured.

“Party bus!” Jack chanted at the same time. 

“We’ll behave,” Ryan diligently replied.

“Some more than others,” Sarah grumbled. The happy couple started to pack their stuff and left shortly after. I stared at them as they left – though to be honest, I was staring more at Sarah’s ass than anything. A nudge took me out of my thoughts of desire – I looked to my left and saw Rose was the source of the nudge.

“That was a good one,” she told me as she packed up her things.

“I thought you were pissed at me,” I told her quietly.

“Nope, I’m in a good mood now,” she replied. “I’m kind of liking Petty Jason.”

“Oh my God, don’t even say that,” I laughed.

“And if I may add,” Chadwick dryly cut in, “Don’t encourage it.”

I sheepishly smiled at Chadwick who just held her trademark “this is amusing but also I’m not amused” expression. I turned back to Rose.

“Wanna walk with me?” she asked.

“Huh?”

“Home. I’m walking home. I’m asking if you want to keep me company.”

“This is why I call you unpredictable, Rose,” I told her.

“I’m not hearing a no.”

“Plus,” Candy cut in, “You’re not so predictable yourself, Jason!”

“Ask her that,” I retorted, gesturing towards Rose.

Rose nodded and turned to Candy. “He’s… unpredictably predictable.”

“Whereas she’s predictably unpredictable,” I added with zero hesitation.

Jack made a show of looking back and forth between us. “Am I seeing double today? You two are like twins,” he joked, then pointed at Rose. “I swear to god, if you start making him just like you, and I wake up in a week and realize I’m scared to death of him too…”

Rose folded her arms, then suddenly made a gesture with her hands in his face. “Boo!”

Jack waited a few full seconds then, as a joke, reacted with an, “Ahh!” with his hands in front of his face. “See?”

“You’re such a great actor, Jack,” Rose sarcastically quipped.

“The acting was thanks to Salvador,” Jack replied, referencing his old drama teacher.

“The delayed response was all Jack,” Candy continued with a giggle.

It really was incredible how this group was so functional without… without Sarah and Ryan. Without me even verbally agreeing to it, before I knew it, I was outside the school, walking next to Rose. The sky was grey and the wind was blowing, and it kind of made the mood… mysterious.

“I wasn’t trying to be weird earlier, by the way,” I told her. “When I was asking if you two were doing anything after the relationship.”

Rose looked at me but kept up her pace, not replying intentionally.

“What?” I eventually asked.

“If you weren’t trying to be weird, there’s another reason why you asked,” Rose simply replied. “So, prove me wrong.”

I paused, and kept walking without speaking.

Rose paused too, but then she spoke. “Remember that day I came to visit you at lunch?”

“Yeah?”

“You told me you would tell me everything if I told you everything.” She cracked her neck. “And I seem to recall telling you everything.”

“You tell me a lot of things,” I laughed. “You also told me to never touch you when I just nudged you, and today you nudged me.”

She stopped walking to think. “Huh,” she eventually murmured. “I did apologize and reverse course on that though,” she replied, before adding, “But yeah, I can see that being hypocritical. I’m sorry.”

“No no, I’m not looking for an apology,” I clarified. “Jeez, you’re all over the place today.”

She stared at me, and her eye twitched. “Okay, I think maybe I just want to walk home by myself the rest of the way,” she told me darkly, before starting to walk off. 

“Yeah, see? Great example,” I pointed out. She kept walking, and I jogged to catch up to her. “Can you just… stop?! Jeez, it’s like it takes an act of God to get you to calm down!”

Rose stopped walking, and for a second I was worried I crossed some sort of line again. Instead, I looked ahead, and saw a wall of rain headed our way. “Oh… no,” Rose murmured, before the both of us turned and ran back as fast as we could in the other direction. It was completely futile, and with a shriek, Rose got clocked with the full force of the rain a microsecond before I did. Luckily, we found some kind of nearby pizza place with an extra bit of roof overlooking its patio, so we quickly huddled under it. It was under a minute of time stuck in the rain, but we were both soaked to the bone. Eventually, once we got our breaths, we looked at each other… and laughed.

And laughed and laughed. We just kept laughing. “An act of God,” Rose repeated, still laughing. “Okay, you know what, whatever. Sure. I guess it took an act of God. I’m accepting this one on the chin.”

“I got smited too,” I laughed.

Rose scratched the back of her neck nervously. “Did you hear… I… yelped.”

“You yelped, huh? Sounded like a shriek to me,” I laughed along. 

Rose shoved me, laughing. Eventually the laughter died down, and the two of us watched the town get absolutely drenched. Rose clicked her tongue. “Y’know, I actually really like rain,” she said out loud. “It’s kinda like… like the world gets too dirty every so often, so the water cycle comes in and washes it all away.”

“Cleansing it of its sins?” I offered.

“You’re on some God stuff today,” Rose observed.

“I was actually trying to segue to something,” I admitted. “You asked me to tell you everything.”

Rose looked at me, saying nothing. 

“I mean, it’s raining so hard now, no one can hear us. And we’re not at school, or any other place where people can listen…”

“Now or never,” Rose finished the thought.

I nodded and closed my eyes. “Just keep in mind I’m trusting you a lot here,” I told her.

“Unless you’re about to tell me you’re gay too, I think it’s fair to say I told you something more vulnerable,” she pointed out. “Whatever it is, it’s probably not something about you that might convince the popular kids to physically bully you.”

I shrugged. Fair point. I inhaled and opened my mouth. “Sarah and I were fuck buddies for a bit. It actually kinda happened shortly after we met. Something clicked. We didn’t go all the way, but I never went that far with a girl before. I mean… ever. I thought it was special, but I was not good about her also seeing Ryan at the same time. Then, she tells me, ‘oh hey, by the way, I’m gonna start dating Ryan.’ So I’m all like, ‘oh, are we stopping,’ and she’s like, ‘nah, let’s just be sneaky or something.’ I get really weird feelings about it. When she wanted to talk to me in the halls… she was… sorry Rose, she was crazy. Actually crazy. So I tell her, ‘yeah, no more.’ That’s why I wanted to know.”

I was looking away the whole time I was talking. When I looked back at Rose, she was looking down. She just stood there for a bit, then… started calmly walking out into the rain.

“Hey, hey, no,” I barked, sprinting out and grabbing her by the shoulders. “I thought you’d keep an open mind,” I told her with my hands on her shoulders. 

“Stop manhandling me,” she ordered with a quiet, quivering voice, shaking her shoulders, trying to free them from my hands. She refused to look up at me.

“Look at me,” I ordered.

“My fucking ex is sleeping around with everybody I know, I’m allowed to… to want… y’know!” she yelled back exasperatedly.

“Can we at least talk under the pizza place roof?” I asked, the rain nearly drowning out my words.

“No.”

“Why not?!”

She mumbled something.

“What?”

“Because I’m fucking crying!!” she screamed, then ran back under the roof and smooshed herself against a wall. She slid down the wall, sobbing uncontrollably. Fuck, she looked like a completely different person.

I slowly trudged back, watching her throw off her backpack and collapse into a heap on the floor. I didn’t know what about all this had her crying, but it’s not like I could ask her, so I just sat there, listening to the tears and rain fall.

I eventually realized that I had to not lean against my backpack… it was soaked. If I leaned against it, it would just push all of my stuff against the wet backpack. It probably soaked through. At least the concrete under this roof was mostly unaffected. I moved my backpack and saw… hers. Rose’s backpack. I looked back at her – she was still in an indecipherable pile on the ground. I looked back at her backpack and realized something needed to be done.

Hope you can trust me on this, Rose.

I pulled open her backpack and grabbed the largest thing there. As I feared, the water began to soak through her backpack and started to affect the edges of her sketchbook. I brushed off the water as best as I could and gently put the sketchbook next to her backpack, in an area where it wouldn’t get wet. Then, I folded my arms and waited.

I don’t know how long I waited. I tried to remain as still as possible, and not make her think I was watching her. I just sat there with my folded arms until I eventually heard her gasp.

“You went into my backpack?!” she asked sharply.

I turned to face her. Whatever. If this was going to be her first reaction to everything, I needed to just disengage from that too. If she was going to keep up being bitchy, then I would just let her. I’d done enough for her already. “Yes,” I simply said, instead of defending myself. 

“Wh-” She looked at her book, then out into the rain. Her eyes focused again on mine. “You were… trying to save my sketches?”

“Yes,” I repeated.

She paused, then looked down. “Well then,” she muttered. “Never thought I’d say this to a living soul, but: thanks for going into my backpack.” We gazed out into the rain together. “It’s all good. I’m calm.”

“Who cares?” I found myself lazily saying. “More importantly, are you okay?”

Rose looked at me, an unsure expression on her face. “You’re, uh… still predictably unpredictable. No, wait-”

I pointed at her. “That one was you. I was the-”

“I know, I know. You’re still unpredictably predictable. I can’t believe you took out my sketchbook.”

“For… the rain, yeah,” I replied, gesturing. “I didn’t want it to get wet. It means a lot to you, right?”

“I, um… misjudged you.”

Her words hung in the air while the two of us sat under the rain. “Nope,” I finally told her. “You read me exactly right. I was being an asshole when we met.”

“Well then you’ve changed.” Her tone was sure of itself.

“You’ve changed too,” I replied.

“I’ve opened up. You’ve changed.”

“What if neither of us changed?”

“Then… I’m glad you kept coming to Quiz Bowl. I’m glad I got to see the real you. You’re a good friend,” Rose quietly told me. She drummed on her knees in thought for a bit before speaking again. “I broke things off with Sarah, but I think she got over it a lot quicker than I did. I thought I would take that well, but… I didn’t.”

I turned to her, nodding to show I was listening.

“I was… mad at her. You know? I broke up with her, it was my right to get over it quicker. Like… I know saying it out loud makes it seem like I’m childish, but I’m seventeen, sue me. Plus, when I’m mad at people, it doesn’t show-”

“Okay, hold the fuck on,” I laughed, holding up a hand.

Rose only smiled back. “No no, trust me, one sec,” she interrupted, laughing. “When I’m mad at people, it doesn’t show, because I act like that with everyone. There we go.”

“Ah, there we go,” I chuckled, then paused. “Relationships seem like they… suck.”

Rose shrugged. “You get no argument from me,” she conceded. “I hope she and Ryan are so fucking happy together.”

“No you don’t.”

“No I don’t. I hope she cheats on h- …oh. Ha.” She nervously played with her fingers. “Was that… insensitive?”

I shrugged. “Not to me. I stopped things before they could ever get that far.”

“Then I hope he finds out. And I hope you never get named,” she continued.

“It’s Sarah. She’d name me in a heartbeat for no reason,” I replied, and got a chuckle from her. “How’re you and Ryan?”

Rose shrugged. “He can be a dick, but I knew him for longer than I knew her. He’s better some days. Today… was a good day.”

“Was literally about to say, ‘oh, like today?’”

“Mhm, yeah,” she replied with a nod. She looked out and clicked her tongue. “It’s practically stopped. Crazy how it was just coming down a bit ago.”

“In my experience, the harder it rains, the shorter it lasts,” I replied.

“I want to walk the rest of the way alone,” she announced as she gently placed her sketchbook back into her bag, in a drier part. “If that’s okay. You did nothing wrong. In fact, I want to walk home alone because this was really nice, but I’m me, and you’re you.”

“You don’t want either one of us to say something and start another bickering match?” I guessed.

She nodded. “This was nice. I know I said I would be your friend before, but…” She scoffed as her eyes got mistier. “Sorry. It’s been a long day. Um…” She blinked the tears away. “Th-this was the moment I really felt like I w-want to be your friend. So when I remember this, I want to remember it well. It’s stupid, I know. Anyway…”

As if someone shot off a starting gun, Rose was off, bolting away before I even had a chance to say, “don’t worry, it’s not stupid.” But a part of me hoped… or knew… that we both knew I’d say that.

***

I could see why Rose wanted to walk the rest of the way home. She truly was unpredictable, in all of the best and worst ways. Once today’s practice ended – our final practice before Regionals – she met my gaze with a stone-faced expression. “Can I talk to you in the hallway?” she quietly asked.

Here we go. I glanced around me – no one was bothering to look at us – and leaned in. “Was I being too friendly again today?”

She looked off and huffed. “I – yeah,” she admitted. “Not your fault. Just a more sensitive day for me.”

“I’ll back off,” I told her sincerely. 

She nodded, then grabbed her bag and walked off, not bothering to say goodbye to me or anyone on the way out. 

I felt a hand clap down on my shoulder. “Don’t take it personal,” Jack instructed me. 

“Never do,” I replied without even looking at him. He took his hand off of me and I looked at him to be greeted with a skeptical look. I rolled my eyes. “Anymore,” I added in annoyance.

He gave a shrug, complete with his arms and all. “Hey,” he simply said, then began to walk away.

“Hey Jack?” I asked.

He spun around instantly. “Yo.”

“How well do you know Rose?”

He paused. “Um, you might know her better than me at this point,” he admitted.

“You never walked her home or anything?”

“Once or twice, on her, like…” He glanced at the door, as if she could come back in at any moment. “…lonelier days. We didn’t really talk much though. She’s great, she just…” He laughed. “She has a low tolerance for high-energy guys, and, I mean…” He gestured to himself.

I chuckled. “Yeah, makes sense.”

“Why, you two fighting?”

“Opposite. She and I are getting each other more. It’s nice but it’s also kinda… confusing.” I paused. “I’m not like you all. I don’t get drama or walking home with people or meeting in private to talk. I dunno how to… do any of this.”

Jack laughed. “Wow, that was honest of you,” he admitted. “Dude, if Rose of all people is becoming friends with you, then there’s no need to question how to do it. You’re already doing it. She doesn’t do that with just anybody.” He almost turned back around, then stopped. “Just don’t assume that it means anything more than-”

“Way ahead of you,” I replied with a nod. I gestured to Candy. “Sometimes boys and girls can be just friends without more going on.”

Jack beamed, and Candy smiled with him. “Exactly,” he agreed. Behind him, I saw movement, and locked eyes with Sarah. I kind of forgot she was even still here. She met my gaze for a little bit, but after a while, it softened as she sighed.

“Glad you’re making more friends, Jason,” she quietly told me. From behind, Ryan grabbed and held her around the waist, smiling supportively at me.

Jeez. Fuck. That smile just screamed, ‘I have no idea she was so ready to cheat on me with you.’ I did my best to smile back at him. “So, you two…?”

“As of today,” Ryan proudly declared. “So I guess we kind of failed at that whole ‘just be friends without more’ thing.” He laughed.

Ugh. Yeah Ryan, believe me – been there. I’d miss Sarah’s ass – the one pressed up against Ryan probably right that second – but being friends with benefits fucking sucked. I did my best to laugh alongside the other four, then decided to get out of there.

I was nearly out of the physics hallway when I heard running footsteps behind me. I turned around to see Sarah running up to me. I decided to stop in place and let her come to me.

“Hey,” she began, trying to mask the fact she was out of breath after running such a short distance. “Uh… are we good?”

I shrugged. “I don’t even know,” I admitted. “This has been a lot.”

She nodded sympathetically. “Yeah, this whole situation got out of hand.”

“You’re saying that like you didn’t text me what you did,” I countered. “You also made- wait, you made this whole situation, Sarah. You don’t get to say that.”

“Sooo… you’re mad at me,” she concluded.

I exhaled through my nostrils and pursed my lips. “I mean, whatever,” I admitted. “It blew through. You’re with Ryan now, and I’m-”

“With Rose?” Sarah asked.

I looked at her, then shook my head. “Nope, just friends,” I reassured her. Then, I had the most awful idea ever. “I’ve seen the way you look at her, y’know. It’s not the way friends look at each other. Tell me to fuck off if you want, but uh… you two were some kind of secret couple, weren’t you?”

Her eyes flared. “Um…” she fumbled. “N-no, why?”

“Really? Jeez. I was so sure…” I replied, probably convincingly. I didn’t have Picasso or whatever his name was as a drama teacher, but I think I fooled her. “Okay, sorry. It’s not my place to pry anyway. But nah, Rose and me are friends. Trust me, we wouldn’t even work as anything more. We’re the kind of friends that get along until we… don’t.”

“Yeah, she’s… strange,” Sarah admitted. “Just be careful. Like I told you, I was her friend too. And I was her friend until I wasn’t. It could happen to you too. If you want my opinion, it’s only a matter of time before it does happen to you too. She’ll get tired of you, or just randomly decide to have this new worldview, and it won’t include you. Then you’ll be out of there. And let me tell you, Jason, it sucks.”

It was strange. Sarah was obviously bitchy and dramatic when she wanted to be, and she was lying to me now, but… a small part of me felt sorry for her. Maybe it was all for the better she ended up with Ryan or something. “I’ll keep it in mind,” I told her. 

Then the dumbest thing ever spilled out of my mouth.

“And if things between you and Ryan don’t work out…” I began, trailing off intentionally.

Sarah gave me a weird look and chuckled. “Boys,” she joked to herself. “If me being with him is your limit, you’re not seeing this ass for a while.” She looked behind her. “Well, not touching it. Let me know if you get anything better than a flip phone and I’ll send you something.”

My heart skipped a beat. My dick reacted by itself. “L-like what?”

“Like my ass,” she richly laughed. “You get to see it, we don’t do anything together. Win-win.”

“Where’s your win?” I asked her.

“I get to know you still can’t stop thinking about it,” she told me smugly. 

“I think my flip phone can get picture messages,” I heard myself say.

“Then we’ll see. I’ll think about it.” She smirked. “Sounds like we’re definitely good now.”

“Just don’t make it weird,” I told her honestly. “No more big text messages. No more being… like, dramatic.”

“I could say the same thing about you,” she told me. “Later, Jason!” She turned around and began to walk away. I don’t know if it was my imagination, but as she walked back to the physics room (and her boyfriend), it looked like she was swaying her ass for me to look at.

***

I really felt like I had become so fucking moral. I became the Good Guy. I told her ass off and broken off our relationship. I thought that once you became the Good Guy, that was it, you were good to go, you didn’t need to keep working for it. Nope; I cracked immediately.

My phone’s screen was small and awkward, but Sarah didn’t have Discord and didn’t want the pictures on anything but my phone, so this was the best I was getting. Even then, it turned out that lusting after someone that looked like a Seattle hipster had its benefits. She was… really good at photography.

Youd better be touching yourself 😉

I laughed at the message. Of course I was. I was seeing her huge hypnotic ass on the screen; aside from looking at it, there wasn’t anything I wanted to do except for jacking off. I told her as much in a small message – after all, on this dumb flip phone, typing was too awkward for one hand without the other holding the phone – and resumed what I was doing.

Sarah was relentless. It was so clear she loved the attention, because she sent me one, two, three more pictures. A picture of her pussy from behind – God damn, how’d she even manage that one? – then a picture of her spreading her labia for me, then one of her, two fingers deep inside herself. 

I could feel my cock jumping and throbbing even as I jacked myself off. I never even thought about this, but her being so off-limits did make it hotter. It was a kind of hot that was too much sometimes, but tonight was clearly not going to be one of those nights. 

Even worse, it was clear that Sarah caught on to this level of hotness. Every so often, after a picture, she’d sent another text, with its clear meaning blatantly obvious.

Just for us tho. Its our little secret… our dirty little secret 😉

Fuck. It didn’t help matters that Ryan could be a prick, and our situation was already complicated. Besides, I could play the morality police all I wanted – here I was, jacking off to her ass, so, y’know, who the fuck was I?

Dont worry. Im keeping in control too. Im definitely not thinking about your mouth all over my body and playing with my pussy rn 🙂

I bit my lip and groaned out loud. She was relentless, but she was hot as fuck and knew it. I was so horny I didn’t care. Fuck, I was so horny I was moving my hips to help my hand. I knew that I wouldn’t be stopping tonight until I came at least twice. I couldn’t help but want to reply. I didn’t care if it was wrong; it felt too good. I wanted to be bad.

Fuck that. think of me inside u

Sent. She couldn’t have not known it was what I was thinking about anyways. Instantly, she replied.

Way ahead of you 😉 

Fuuuck. God, I hoped things between her and Ryan wouldn’t work out. Maybe there were better friends on the team, but no one was hotter than Sarah. I pumped furiously, imagining it was Sarah bouncing up and down on top of me. The taken Sarah. Stupid Ryan would have no clue, She’d want me, and not him. She would leave me for him, after getting one taste of me. She’d ride me once and instantly change her mind, leaving him for me. 

I winced, then nearly spasmed in place. A fuckin’ torrent erupted out of me, shooting up in the air and landing somewhere on my legs. I stared up at the ceiling, panting, catching my breath. My cock wasn’t even close to going soft. Better yet… no guilt. No stupid post-nut clarity. I knew my goals may have… needed adjusting, but jeez, I was allowed to want a girl to leave her boyfriend for me. That was, like, standard high school bullshit. I was allowed to have a taboo crush. If anything, it was long overdue.

As I sat there recovering, my phone buzzed. I lazily glanced at the screen, and smiled at the text I saw.

Just came… for the 1st time. I hope you dont have plans tonite 😉

She was trouble. I loved it. 

***

Much like Districts, Regionals was going to be a half-day event. The cool part was when it was supposed to start. Districts was in the morning when we were all tired and out of it (or at least I was, as far as I knew, Jack literally didn’t need to sleep), but Regionals was happening starting at lunch. And that suited me just fine – anything to get me out of math class was a fuckin’ balm and a salve.

Waiting for the bus was still basically the same thing. All six of us just hung out on the school’s front steps, waiting for the bus. Jack was trying to beat Candy at thumb wrestling, Sarah was definitely avoiding eye contact with me and only talking to Ryan, and Rose had her headphones in. Having nothing else to do, I just started taking bets on who would win the thumb-wrestling… and losing.

“This makes zero sense,” Jack mumbled. “I have longer thumbs than you and it’s not even close.”

“Yeah, but do you want to win?” Candy teased him. “You gotta have that drive!”

“I got the drive! I’m the drivingest motherfucker to ever live,” Jack rebutted, then turned to me. “Jason, help a brother out. Do I have drive or nah?”

I shrugged. “Jeez, I dunno,” I mumbled. “You keep losing here, so…”

“Alright, I am winning at least one, let’s do this,” Jack grunted, sitting up straight and offering his thumb to Candy. As she accepted, I felt another nudge. I turned around to see Rose, only now taking her headphones off.

“What’s up?” I asked casually, turning around to face her.

“I was just thinking,” she began. “If we get separated again today, can I have your number to get in touch with you?”

“Um, sure, that’s probably smart,” I replied, reaching into my bag to get my phone. “Are you planning on – or… sorry. Do you think you getting angry is in the cards today, or… I could probably be wording this better…”

“Wow. You keep your phone in your bag,” Rose observed, clearly ignoring everything else I said. “Look at you, not caving to social pressure.”

“It helps when your phone sucks shit,” I pointed out.

“You could always get a job and get a new one,” she argued.

“Yeah, but I don’t want a new one and, real talk, I don’t wanna work. I’m putting that shit off as long as I can.” I produced my phone and went to my contacts, then handed the phone to her.

“That’s lazy, but hey, it’s honest,” she replied, taking the phone and putting her number in. “Uh, no, I’m not planning on going off the deep end. Also, you don’t have to walk on eggshells with me.”

“…Yeah I do,” I chuckled, with my tone reflecting how obvious that statement was.

“Well not about that. I know I’m working through stuff. No need to dance around it,” she replied simply, then handed my phone back to me. She glanced at Sarah. “You two haven’t said a word to each other,” she added. “How are you and her?”

I paused. “Do you really want to know?”

Rose’s eyebrows shot up. “What is there to know?” she asked, her voice getting quieter. 

I scratched my head nervously. “I, uh… I want to leave things in the past, but sometimes shit is hard to let go. Both of us… miss what we got up to sometimes, and sometimes both of us miss it right when the other one is missing it, and…”

Rose’s look turned to disappointment. “What, at her place? While she’s officially-”

I shook my head and held my hand up. “Just conversations. Over the phone and shit.”

“I see,” she replied, then shook her head, sighing. She started to put her headphones back on. “Good to know.”

I could tell she was disappointed with me, but hey, “at least I’m telling you the truth,” I threw in there. “We’re being honest with each other and shit. And I mean, you asked.”

“No, I know that,” she replied, cool as a cucumber. “And as I said… good to know.”

I paused. There was something new in her voice. “Are you… up to something?”

She paused, holding her headphones right next to her ears. “Am I?” she simply replied, before putting them back on.

***

“Yo,” Ryan said with urgency, tapping me on the shoulder.

I looked back at him. He was standing in the bus aisle, even as the bus was moving. “What?”

“Arlo Guthrie isn’t coming. Pass it on,” he instructed seriously. I gave him a confused look. “The team with Llewellyn?” he clarified. “The quiz genius. They’re not coming. We have a shot at this.”

Wow, Ryan really lived and breathed for this shit. I lazily looked back at Rose sitting next to me, who was using her headphones to lock the world out. I tapped her on the shoulder, and she glanced my way, then took her headphones off. “What?”

“Um, Ryan wants the team to know that Arlo Guthrie High isn’t coming to Regionals,” I reported. She didn’t reply. “The team with the super smart guy.”

“I don’t care,” she replied, putting her headphones back on. Even with me not able to reply, she continued with, “Only bug me if it’s an emergency or we’ve arrived.”

I rolled my eyes. Why did I have to make friends with the bitch with the attitude? At least I totally never had to walk on eggshells with her. Never. Not once. Jesus.

***

The air of Districts was exciting, maybe because this was new to a lot of us and yet no team had anything to lose. Here, we had everything to lose, and it really felt like teams knew it. Not to mention, this was a whole new crowd of people. Never mind just Arlo Guthrie; it turned out that the only people from our district to show up, besides us, was North High.

“Why even go to Districts and get points if you’re not going to show up to Regionals…?” Ryan wondered out loud as we wandered out of the gym where the opening announcements were given.

Rose leaned in as we walked. “I hear there’s this strange new motivational factor, it’s called ‘wanting to have fun,’” she replied.

“I’m amazed you’ve heard of it,” Sarah rebutted coldly. I glanced her way. Jeez. That hit twice as hard knowing she was Rose’s secret ex.

“Okay,” Chadwick said quietly, then turned to face us. “Listen up. I’m only going to say this once. I put up with a lot of arguing when I don’t have to. I don’t make you leave the room, I don’t punish you, and clearly, you’re just taking advantage of that and running with it. Nearly all of you.” She paused, looking us all over. “It stops today. If even one of you does anything petty or immature and makes our school look bad while we’re here, you will be put on the Alternatives table for the whole tournament. Is that understood?”

We paused. Eventually, we all mumbled “yes” in unison. We were chastised. Fuck, I may have had authority issues or whatever but even seeing Chadwick that annoyed with me was enough to make me feel like shit. None of us said anything after that until we got to the first room, and our first opponent: Shrewsbury High.

They were in good spirits when we arrived at their table. And why wouldn’t they be? They didn’t get chewed out by their teacher moments before sitting down. Our team was relatively quiet, but it didn’t mean the adrenaline wasn’t flowing. This wasn’t Districts anymore. This was real. It was time to see what we were made of.

A chubby man with glasses and a childlike face introduced himself as Mr. Davis, the quizmaster. Representing the school on his side were Inky, Pinky, Blinky, and Clyde or whatever. Who cared what their names were? They were just some fucking geeks about to be pummeled into the pavement.

“40-point snapshot to start the round,” Mr. Davis read. “The four ghosts in Pac-Man are named Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and what?”

Holy shit, that was coincidental. I buzzed in. “Clyde,” I answered.

“Correct, Hazelwood,” Mr. Davis replied. “Name the English television host that interviewed and filmed a series of episodes with former President Richard Ni-”

One of the others buzzed in, some pale geek with red hair and tired eyes. “Frost,” he mumbled.

“First name as well, please,” Mr. Davis instructed.

“Uh… David Frost,” the geek replied.

“Correct, Shrewsbury,” Mr. Davis replied. “In mythology, which island was famously home to the Greek poet Sappho-”

All three of the teammates at my table – Candy, Sarah, and Rose – all hit their buzzers. Rose got there first. “Lesbos,” she replied, then caught Sarah’s gaze. Sarah looked away, only to lock eyes with Candy, who in turn also looked away. Okay, fuck what I said about Pac-Man – this wasn’t just coincidence, it was serendipity. Jesus Christ.

***

“That’s the game!” Mr. David declared. “Just let me calculate a few last-minute things here… aaaand double check… aaaand that’s that! Hazelwood High wins this one with a score of 410. Shrewsbury comes in second place with 340 points.”

I breathed and let my head hang from the Alternatives table. Somewhere along the way, I lost count. I knew we had to win two more games to qualify for Counties or whatever – Ryan made sure everyone in the group knew that – but we won our first game. We were on track to be winners. Holy shit, this was cool.

Shrewsbury reacted the way losers might; with forlorn and angry expressions, but still shaking the hands of the people at the table, minus Rose of course. She sat in her chair with crossed arms, not even bothering to look away even as the other teammates extended their hands to her then awkwardly retracted them.

As we walked to our next room, Sarah hung back close to Chadwick, despite the rest of our group walking in front. I looked back, then slowed my pace just enough to hear Sarah’s words. 

“But she’s not even shaking their hands,” Sarah reported. “That’s not sportsmanlike behavior. Doesn’t that look bad on the school? I really think that doesn’t respect what you said.”

“I saw it myself, thank you,” Chadwick replied humorlessly. “If she doesn’t want to shake hands, that’s a boundary of hers. We already talked about it. I’m fully capable of deciding for myself what behavior I see that is okay and isn’t, thank you Sarah.”

Keeping my head forward, I exhaled and walked a little quicker to catch up to Rose. “Hey,” I whispered.

Rose kept her head forward but angled her eyes to look at me.

“Don’t look now, but Sarah was just trying to make the case to Chadwick that you not shaking hands with people should get you in trouble,” I tattled. Sarah may have had the hotter ass, but Rose was the better friend. I didn’t care if this was drama or whatever – I wanted her to know.

“I’m not surprised,” Rose whispered back bitterly. “Did Chadwick…?”

“Nope, she shut her down,” I replied.

“Good,” Rose huffed. “I saw it coming, I already talked to Chadwick after she gave the speech.”

“Really? When? I didn’t see that,” I replied.

“Just because you don’t see things doesn’t mean they don’t happen. That’s, like, the motto of this group,” Rose pointed out. 

“Why do I get the feeling that even now there are secrets in this group I don’t know about?” I mused.

“I barely know half of them either,” Rose argued, then sighed. “Sarah’s getting more aggressive.”

I knew that tone. “Don’t do anything stupid,” I cautioned Rose.

She moved her jaw around. “I never do,” she replied defiantly, keeping her gaze forward.

***

Wordsworth Collegiate. With a name like that, I think our group knew they were fucked from the word “go,” but that didn’t mean we weren’t going to give it the old college try. Or in this case, the old collegiate try. Even still, our four opponents wore suits – identical suits, some kind of school uniform – sat up straight, and never said a word unless it was the answer to a question. But when it came to answering questions, they never held back.

“Steven King.”

“X equals seven.”

“Zurich.” 

“Ubu Roi.”

“Suleiman the Magnificent.”

They were certainly making their words worth a lot. Much like with Arlo Guthrie, I felt… powerless. Like it was unfair somehow. At least with Guthrie, they had some kind of supergenius that knew everything because of some inherent advantage. Here, there were just a bunch of smug fucks in suits staring me down. Their very aura just oozed “we’re better than you.” And worst of all, at least when it came to Quiz Bowl, they were 100% right.

“Okay, that’s the match,” Chadwick reported, and chuckled. “I think we might have an idea who won, but give me a second to run the numbers.”

I sat at the Alternatives table along with Candy and gave her a look. Candy only shrugged and chuckled. I leaned in. “I bet they feel so fucking smart right now,” I murmured.

“Oh, for sure,” Candy whispered in response. “If I got that many questions in a row, I’d be feeling so good too. They’re so good. I wonder if they practice.”

I stared at Candy for a bit, then smirked at her. I chuckled and leaned in again. “Okay, so I was trying to be all like, ‘oh, they think they’re so much better than us,’ and here you are being wholesome. I should be more like you, Candy.”

Candy smiled and shrugged. “I think sports makes people really competitive. I may not be smart, but I guess I’m not… y’know…”

“At least you’re not me or Ryan or Sarah or Rose?” I offered.

“I’m not saying that,” Candy laughed bashfully. “I just don’t get too into the game. I guess that has good sides.”

“You’re a good person, Candy,” I affirmed. “I’m sorry for trying to make you, like, agree that the other team were a bunch of snobs or wh-”

“Okay!” Chadwick announced. “That’s the game. Wordsworth Collegiate has won with a decisive score of 540 points. Hazelwood came in second with 250.”

“Shocking,” one of the well-dressed students joked to another, then they shared the most stereotypical ‘rich kid’ laugh together. The only thing missing from this scene was a third one chiming in with, “Just wait until Father hears about this, he’ll give me a second Ferrari” or something.

I was mid-sentence about trying to be a better person but even then my blood began to boil. I don’t know why, but rich kids were a whole new type of infuriating. I think it’s because of how smug they were that they had an advantage when it came to… everything. These kids were definitely all going to some fancy university in the future and ready to become lawyers or Senators, and then they’d get even more power over people like me, all increasing their smugness. Jesus.

Candy must have noticed my change, because she waved a hand in front of my face. “These guys existed yesterday, and you didn’t know about it, and you were happier,” she reminded me. “You won’t win by letting them be angry at you. Just let them walk out of here, and then they can go back to not existing.”

I breathed, then nodded instinctually. “That’s really smart,” I found myself breathing. The boys in suits – and they were all boys, lily-white and no doubt any one of them without a trust fund – left without shaking hands. I exhaled and watched the others start to murmur.

“Wow, they couldn’t even fathom the idea of shaking hands with the peasant class,” Jack joked.

“Wordsworth Collegiate. They’re even worse than I thought,” Ryan noted. “Still, their ego is their weakness. Maybe next year could do something with that.”

“Maybe life needs to do something with that,” Sarah noted. “I bet one of them has crashed Daddy’s Rolls Royce and gotten away with it without a single consequence.”

“Even if I did shake hands, I wouldn’t touch them in a million years,” Rose muttered. “They’re too soft for me anyway.”

I watched this one-by-one domino chain of insults go down, then watched how it affected Chadwick. I slowly turned back to Candy. “Are we… toxic?”

Candy stared at me for a moment, then broke out into this “we’re sharing an inside joke” looking face. “Yeah,” she replied, humorously yet sincerely.

I wasn’t laughing.

***

1-1. Not the worst start, and plus, we were up against four teams this time, not five. To have a shot, we needed two more wins and a prayer that we earned enough points in Districts. To be absolutely sure, we needed to win all four games, but that was kind of out the window now. Fucking Wordsworth Collegia-

No. Nope. None of that. They were rich and snobby, but they also were talented. They won because of their talent, and I had to respect that. Plus, if I got mad, that would only mean I lose. I remembered when one guy got kicked out of our TF2 group a few years ago for being a snobby prick, and for like the next full year in our chats, the gamer gang would just talk about the guy nonstop. It started as bitter remarks and genuine anger, but then it just sort of became a meme, like, “What do you think Ben thinks about the new Pope?” or “Do you think Ben would have voted for Romney if he could?” Like, it was literally just us talking about him. Sure, he was a punchline, but still, the guy lived rent-free in our heads. He… won. Without even knowing it. And I didn’t even see it that way until Candy helped me out. Jeez, I was way less self-aware than I thought.

Rose ended up walking next to me on our way to lunch. “Fucking Wordsworth Collegiate,” she began. “I was so ready to strangle those rich fucks. I’m surprised you didn’t say anything after they left.”

“They didn’t exist to me yesterday and once they left out of those doors, they didn’t exist again,” I told her seriously, “and I’m happy about it. If I keep talking about them, that just means they win.”

“Wow, seriously?” Rose asked with a disappointed tone. “What are you, Justin Trudeau?”

“Who’s that again?” I asked.

Rose laughed, with a smile but a… hurtful one. “Wow, Jason. That’s sad,” she replied. 

“Sorry if I don’t want to keep talking about things that make me upset,” I defended myself. “And if you think that’s sad, maybe keep that to yourself.”

Rose stopped, to the extent that she stopped walking. After a few steps, she walked back up to me, a bewildered expression on her face. “Oookay, so it’s my turn to walk on eggshells?”

“I just think we’re all getting too toxic,” I replied. “And I’m trying to stop it.”

“And your first idea was to just shut me down and be this uptight moral prick,” Rose observed. “Wow. Consider this a lesson learned, Jason.” She huffed and powerwalked away from me. But I didn’t care. I didn’t care.

***

Lunch was later than usual, but even at this tournament with a bunch of other schools here, it was less crowded than I was used to. For most of the students at this school, lunch already happened, so it was just the teams having lunch, and all of them were sitting with each other, talking strategy or something. 

Ryan sure wanted to ape that, and kept bringing up random points with the showy opening of, “Listen up, team.” Each point he made was rewarded with less and less attention, not that I think he even noticed after a while. The guy would talk to a wall as long as a pair of eyes was painted on it. 

Rose was quiet. Not that she wasn’t normally, and plus, I probably gave her a good reason to be. I felt good in the moment saying that shit to her, but… maybe what Candy was saying was softening me up too much, because I kept looking at her and wanting to apologize. 

I may not have thought too highly of my dad – go figure, dude was a grade-A asshole – but he had one of those folksy sayings dads have that stuck with me. “If you keep thinking you want to do something, either do it or forget about it forever.” It didn’t exactly roll off the tongue, but it was good for me. I rarely overthought shit, and until recently, probably didn’t think all that much about shit I did do. If I was thinking something over and over, it was probably for a reason, so I may as well listen to it.

“Yo,” I began, addressing Rose on the other side of the table. I tapped the table in front of her to signal that she should take her headphones off, without alerting the rest of the group. 

Luckily, right as I did that, Ryan cleared his throat. “Listen up, team,” he began. Perfect; the rest of the team was fully distracted. Today was full of great coincidences.

Rose took off her headphones and looked at me with a blank expression. “What?”

“I’m trying to be more, y’know, conscious of my words and shit, and I don’t wanna be angry,” I began. “So that’s why I kinda shut you down earlier when you were venting, but also, I probably wasn’t… I dunno, graceful or whatever about it. I wasn’t trying to suggest shit was wrong with you. If I wanna be less toxic, that also means being less rude to you or whatever. I’m sorry.”

Rose stared at me for a bit… then sighed… then picked up her lunch tray and walked away. Was she… serious?! I watched her walk into the sea of other students and stop in front of some group, then sit down with them. My jaw hung open. Rose was so fucking fragile, holy shit. I try to talk to her… no, apologize… and she gets up and fucking moves?!

In desperation, I looked around. Ryan had a hold over the other three, but Chadwick, who sat next to me, witnessed the whole thing (a fact I only clued into after I looked at her). She was looking at me directly, and going by the actions and the look on my face, could figure out at least most of what was happening. “You’re not in the wrong, Jason,” she coaxed me. “Relax. Rose is probably going to be fine too. She reacts impulsively, but you’ve seen how she understands things after. I think committing to not being angry is good, but that also means not falling for her quick anger.”

“But – I just – urgh! I’m literally doing what you want! I’m literally doing the good thing here!” I vented. “For once, I do the good thing, and she gets all pissy and leaves?!”

“Jason,” Chadwick said sternly. “Maybe this was her way of making sure she didn’t do something impulsively. Wait until she comes back. If she’s unfair to you, I will step in. Until then, I think if you want to commit to being less angry, that includes during the times you’re going to get more angry.” Her words sunk in. “Do I need to repeat myself?”

“No, I get it,” I grumbled, then folded my arms. Shit. Being nice fucking sucked. I looked back to where Rose was, and saw her chatting it up with some other people. I kept watching… and my brow furrowed. Boy, she was getting along with this new group freakin’ immediately. Like, she didn’t even pause, she just made a beeline for that team. Maybe that team had an old Cadet on it or something.

I tried to get my mind off of it, but it was either looking at her, being bored, listening to Ryan’s forty-third pep talk, or… talking to Chadwick. And making friends with teachers was for awkward losers. I didn’t care if I was on Hazelwood’s god damn trivia team, I was not about to be the loser that talks to his teachers.

So, being bored won. I slowly ate and stared off into the distance, thinking about Minecraft. Shit, I probably was in the midst of taking my biggest break from video games since I started playing video games. That was a weird fuckin’ thought. I used to just see myself as a gamer. Now, I was forcibly removed from it all. Was I even still a gamer, or was I forced to become anyone but myself…?

Okay, no more being bored. Jeez, maybe I was an overthinker. Just as I shook myself free of those thoughts, Rose came back, her tray still in hand. As casually as anyone would, she sat back down in front of me, shamelessly looking me in the eye.

“Apology accepted,” she told me.

…What? “Huh?”

“Your apology. I accept it. Something wrong?” she asked.

“Um, yeah,” I awkwardly replied. “You… left…”

She nodded. We both didn’t speak for a bit. “I did,” she confirmed. 

“Were you… angry? Or…”

Rose shrugged, her face blank. “Nope,” she told me, as if that was all she needed to say. 

“Then why did you leave?” I asked, bewildered. This was weird, even for Rose.

Rose looked at me, then looked at Chadwick, noticing that she too was paying attention to her. Rose’s gaze went behind Chadwick, to some clock on the cafeteria wall. “Is that clock right, Chadwick? We should probably get going, right?”

Chadwick turned her whole body to look at the clock behind her. As she did, Rose refocused her gaze on me… and winked.

This didn’t help my bewilderment at all. No wonder I was becoming an overthinker: I was becoming friends with a foul-tempered crazy girl that always needed me to answer her riddles three. With my eyes, I tried to ask her what she was on about, just as Chadwick turned back around. “We should be fine for five more minutes, but yes, finish up, everyone,” she reported. 

I looked around the table. Sarah and Ryan were sitting next to each other giggling, Jack was trying to make a makeshift trebuchet with two spoons, and Candy was on her phone. No one noticed what was up with Rose. Hell, I don’t even know if they saw she left. I looked back at Chadwick, who tried to give me a, “See? It all worked out” kind of smile. Then I looked back at Rose, who maintained her gaze on me. Something about the way she was looking at me told me that what just happened wasn’t nothing.

Shortly afterwards, all of us packed up and started to head towards the next room. I didn’t let Rose leave my sight, and walked right next to her. “What’s going on?” I asked her seriously.

“Keep your cool,” she replied simply. “And stop obsessing over me, it’s getting weird.”

“Wha-? You’re the one that walked away from me,” I argued.

“Is that your proof that I’m obsessing over you?” she countered, then turned to me. “I just did you a favor. The least you could do is not grill me like this.”

“What favor?!” I demanded. “What do you mean, favor?”

Rose sighed. “Look, I’ll tell you on the bus ride back, okay?” she conceded, then looked back forward, and… smiled. “If you haven’t figured it out by then.”

Jeez, Rose with the fucking mind games. If she wanted to make me chase her, I wouldn’t do it. I just shrugged and mumbled “whatever,” turning back away from her. If Rose wanted to be weird, she got to be weird. And hey, maybe weird was better than a bitch… but that all depended on what this “favor” would turn out to be.

---

This piece was made possible via commission. If you enjoy what you’re reading and want your own story written by Bashful Scribe, check out the Commission Page and commission him to make your erotic story ideas come to life.

>>Next Chapter

<<Previous Chapter

<<Back