Chapter 10

“Wow,” Athena murmured, her hands eagerly exploring me over my pants. “The rumors did not exaggerate.”

Even in my pent-up state, I sighed. “Really? Even that has been going around the school?”

Athena laughed in a sultry way. “Adam, if someone gets around as much as you do-”

“I’ve done it with, like, four girls!”

“-then it’s going to get around. People love gossip. If you hate it, try not to be a person worth gossiping about.” Her hand migrated to the top of my pants, and slipped inside. I felt her hand gripping my bare cock. “Oh, fuck. You’re gifted.”

Her touch was like electricity. Even though I’d been here a few times before, the feeling of her hand caressing me made me shudder. We’d gone through several months of barely speaking, and for possibly all this time, she had these taboo thoughts about me.

And now, we were living those fantasies out. I eagerly went back to her neck, though I realized that if I left any marks whatsoever, there would be hell to pay. Opting to kiss and lightly bite her neck instead, I stopped my grinding so that she could have full and easy access to me.

I broke away, looking her in the eyes. There was a deep excitement in her eyes, and a little disappointment. “We probably can’t go all the way today,” she told me breathlessly. “I mean, we shouldn’t ... right?”

I laughed. “We shouldn’t,” I agreed. Even still, I found myself running my hands up and down her body, my hands sneaking their way up under her shirt, enjoying the feeling of her bare midriff. Her skin felt so nice to touch that without feeling, I went back to making out with her and grinding up against her, not even caring that her hand was down my pants.

She giggled into the kiss and removed her hand, although after only a few seconds, she pushed me off of her and began fumbling at my fly. “Okay, look, if we’re doing this, then bare minimum, I want to see your cock,” she purred. She unzipped my fly and pulled my pants down, biting her lip as she had to lower my pants more than she thought to see the full thing. “Unf,” she said under her breath.

Like she was in a trance, she got down on her knees, taking me into her hand and giving my cock a few experimental pumps. “We should have done this sooner,” she murmured. “You’re open, down, cute, and your cock looks like this? Damn.”

The room was some kind of storage space with no great place for sitting down, so I bit the bullet and just leaned against the wall, looking down at Athena, unable to stop my smile. She was transfixed, like she was waiting her whole life to see a cock like mine. She kept pumping it with her hand and then looked up at me, winked, and gave a large, slow lick, covering my shaft from base to tip in her saliva.

“Mmm,” she moaned. “You like that?”

“Love it,” I groaned. “You have a great mouth.”

“Mhm, I’m told I’m quite talented,” she giggled sluttily. She licked me up and down a few more times before looking up at me again, then kissing the tip of my cock. It was a slow kiss, one that turned out to be more open-mouth than I’d expected. Before I knew it, Athena was bobbing her head back and forth. She was blowing me.

I moaned, my head hitting the wall. It took all of my strength to keep my knees from buckling. My hands found the back of Athena’s head, guiding her and making sure she wasn’t the one in full control. I didn’t just want her to give me a blowjob – I also wanted to fuck her face. The last bit of action I had gotten was with Sabrina (when Athena caught us) so I knew I was pent up and ready for it. If Athena wanted to give me a blowjob – and clearly, she did – then I was giving her the full experience.

Athena mewed and gurgled and drooled all over my dick. She gave a surprisingly sloppy blowjob, and it was made clear those were the best kinds. Tears sprung to her eyes, but even if I got gentler, she just got fiercer. She loved going overboard. Sucking cock made Athena go feral. She wanted my cum.She craved my cock in her mouth.

I groaned. “Gettin’ close,” I managed to say, my hips starting to move on their own again.

She popped her mouth off of me. It made a wet sound, and several strings of her spit linked me to her mouth. She immediately started pumping me with her hand again. “On my face,” she begged.

I smiled in disbelief. “Really?” She was kinkier than I thought.

“Adam, I’ve wanted to feel your fucking cum on my face for a long time now,” she begged like a slut. “Please. Just shoot your load on me. I want you to paint my face. I want to feel your hot cum on me. Just do it!”

Wow. Maybe I wasn’t the one who was ready pent up. I was glad to help her out though, and soon my hand replaced hers, with my cock aimed squarely at her face. She moaned in anticipation, and she could tell from the sounds I was making that I was seconds away from firing.

I got closer, and closer, and then the wave hit me. I felt my cum erupt from within me. Spurt after spurt began firing from me, and hit Athena square in the face. She moaned in appreciation, feeling my hot cum making contact with her face, in spurt after spurt.

I had closed my eyes, making sure I remained standing while I shot my load, for the first two spurts, but as I opened my eyes, I was welcomed by the hottest sight of Athena, on her knees, gleefully taking a hot load to the face, enjoying the feeling of my cumshot, her right hand inside her pants, no doubt rubbing herself to this sensation.

“Mmmmm...” She loved the feeling of me on her face. Even as my cumshots subsided, she remained there, blissful, touching herself and feeling my essence on her face. She opened her mouth and began sticking her tongue out, touching the ropes of cum with her tongue, trying to encourage a little bit of it into her mouth. I watched in disbelief, still hard despite the load I just shot.

“Wow,” she mumbled, experimentally opening her left eye. Her left hand cleared off her eyes, her right still shamelessly masturbating in front of me. “Been a while, huh?”

“I bet it’s been a while for you too,” I laughed, looking her over.

“Mm, nope. I suck Jason’s dick all the time,” she replied flatly, like it was nothing. “But I’ve been missing out. I knew I wanted more. Thanks for helping me realize just how much I wanted it.”

“Yeah, happy to help,” I replied, chuckling. “Thanks for helping me, too. Your, uh ... yeah, your blowjobs are the best.”

She grinned. “I’ve heard that a few times,” she let me know. “Being with only one boy is just putting my talents to waste. And with a cock like yours ... We’re going to do this again. I hope you know that.”

“I do,” I told her. It was odd; I thought guilt would set in. I just helped a girl cheat, especially after the talk Nicole gave me. Shouldn’t I have had that whole “I’m doing something wrong” complex going on? It seemed like the type of feeling I’d have. I kept waiting for the moment to hit me, but ... it didn’t. I just wanted to do it again. It wasn’t even all that wrong. Honestly, maybe if Jason had been less of a dick, maybe that would have changed things, but I could have let Athena suck my cock again before leaving the party if she wanted.

Athena remained there, rocking slightly back and forth on her knees before emitting a quiet, “Ahn...” and squeezing her eyes shut. After a few seconds, they fluttered open, and she gave a long sigh.

“You got there too?” I asked with a smile.

She smiled back. “Small one. Not nearly enough.” She retrieved her hand from her pants. “I bet you could rock my world sometime. I think I want that in me. Why don’t you text me sometime?”

“Doesn’t Jason look at your phone?”

“Yeah, but he won’t anymore. I’ll make sure of it. Text me whatever you want. And I’ll do the same.”

Even despite just cumming, my heartrate rose. My dick jumped in the air. “So, like ... you’ll send me...”

She laughed. “You want nudes?” She got up and rubbed her face with her hand. “I love taking nudes. Do you?”

Weirdly, the question took me off guard. I had sent, like, a few, but not many. “Um, actually ... huh...”

“What?”

“I just ... I don’t think I’ve sent too many before, now that I’m thinking about it.”

“Well, too bad,” she laughed. “I want to see more of that fucking cock, so you’re taking more nudes.”

I raised my hands as if to jokingly say ‘okay, you win.’ She smiled, wiping the last of my cum off her face. While we dressed, we talked about what else this changed about us, and I was delighted to find out that she was as uninterested in being complicated as I was. No referencing us fucking when we were in public, but no ignoring each other. Friends in Hazelwood, but fuck buddies in private.

She left the room first, wanting to find a bathroom, and I remained in the room, trying to catch my breath. Luckily, when I left, the only two in the main basement room were making out, so no one must have seen us together in any capacity. We were in the clear.

I walked up the steps, noticing that the party had progressed a little, but wasn’t quite over. It was beginning to wind down, but that was it. A few people were beginning to leave, which just left the dedicated ones behind. I was kind of surprised to see Megan was still there, in the living room, standing in the corner. After a quick wave, I walked over to her.

“Hey,” I told her warmly. The music was still present, but it was a lot quieter. I didn’t have to shout on the main floor anymore.

“Hey there,” she said back. The party had loosened her up, and she didn’t seem as stiff as before.

“Have you just been standing here all night?” I asked, then immediately felt silly. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”

She shrugged. “I’ve just been talking to people. I’m not much of a crazy partier, but it’s kind of cool to get to know people here. Make friends, catch up ... you know.”

I nodded, then gestured to her with a finger then walked back to the kitchen, getting myself some kind of fruity beverage. I needed hydration, and I needed sugar. I felt like I was going to pass out. Once I got my drink, I walked back next to her, and took a big gulp. “Aaaah,” I exhaled. “God, I needed that.” I immediately went back for another drink.

Megan’s eyes trailed down to the cup in her hands. “So, you and Athena, huh...?” she asked, quietly yet knowingly.

I choked on my drink. I coughed for a little bit while she just looked calmly at me. “What do you ... even mean?” I managed.

“Adam, aren’t we a little too close for the whole lying thing?” she asked.

“You lied to me all the time about Zelda weeks ago,” I pointed out.

She smiled, a rare occurrence for her these days. “Yeah, that’s a good point,” she admitted. “So...?”

“How much did you see?” I mumbled. “I thought no one saw us.”

She took a drink. My eyes followed her, and she rolled her eyes. “It’s water,” she clarified. “You smell like you just had intercourse, and she left with messy hair. You both were gone a long time, and I always felt some kind of tension between you two. I can guess. Not perfectly, but, yeah.” We stayed silent for a bit, the music filling in the spaces around us. “I’m not judging.”

“You’re not?!” I asked, very surprised.

“She shrugged. “It’s kinda what boys do. It’s not even new territory.”

“For me or for her?” I asked. As soon as she looked at me, I looked down. “I know, I know, for me it’s not.”

“I’m over it,” she nearly laughed. “I was actually going to say that I bet this isn’t the first time she’s done it.”

“She told me she hasn’t.”

“I bet she did,” Megan replied, again knowingly. She slowly moved her mouth to my ear. “And I bet you’re enjoying this bad boy phase of yours,” she whispered into my ear. She moved her head back and smiled, like we were sharing a joke.

I shivered. “Are you even a Christian anymore...?” I asked, half-joking.

She nearly laughed again. “Yeah, Adam, I am,” she replied patiently. “You don’t stop believing when things get tough. If anything, I believe more in Him, but ... less in myself.”

“Ouch.” My face scrunched up. “I’m not in a bad boy phase.”

“No? Not with Athena, nor Sabrina? You tried to get with Zelda too.”

“Yeah, and a certain blondie got in my way,” I joked.

She grinned. “Sorry for being irresistible, even to girls,” she joked back. “I mean, she was nev-”

“I know, she’s a lesbian and was never gonna go for me. Just kidding around.” I shifted. “You made your mark on her though.”

Megan shrugged. “She disappeared into one of the empty rooms with some girl a bit ago. She’s over me.”

“That’s called a rebound. They’re called that because they’re not over their exes,” I pointed out.

“I know what they’re called, and Zelda and I are not exes,” Megan swiftly replied. “I’m only into men. And even then...”

“I know, celibacy,” I replied, nodding. “Did that change too, or...”

Megan slowly closed her eyes and shook her head, grinning. “You are not subtle, Adam.”

“Wha-” I didn’t even realize what it sounded like I was asking. “No! I didn’t mean th-”

“Not when you’re with Nicole.”

It was like the music itself stopped. “ ... I’m sorry?”

Megan stared at me, eventually shrugging. “What? I’m being honest. I dunno what the answer is, so don’t break up with her to get with me-”

“I wasn’t planning on i-”

“-but I don’t think I’d want to do anything with you while you’re with Nicole.”

I was silent for a bit. “I thought you didn’t want to do it again at all. I thought it hurt too badly.”

Megan just gave me a patient smile in response. She grabbed my hand and squeezed it. “Let’s leave it there for now, okay?” She let go of my hand, continuing her patient smile.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could feel Zelda looking at us. Instinctively, I took a step back, which Megan probably interpreted the wrong way. “Come on, Adam, our friendship has been through worse. Don’t act like me saying that was this big thing.” She took a drink. “So obsessive.”

“And speaking of judging me, doesn’t the Bible have some things to say about cheating?”

“I’m more than my religion,” she clarified. “My relationship to God is complicated. Besides, His word is divine, but the Bible was written by people trying to figure out what God wanted.”

“Doesn’t that make any writing about what God wants unreliable?” I asked, scratching my head.

Megan only responded by grinning and winking at me. Even after I gave her a confused expression, she didn’t elaborate. Out of nowhere, she gave me a big hug, and stepped back, leaning against the counter.

“Your makeup looks good,” I said awkwardly, wanting to change the conversation.

“Do you like it? It’s just mascara and eyeshadow. I thought I would hate it, but I had a lot of fun putting it on. I might do it more often. I see why popular girls do it so much.” She swayed to the music.

It struck me that Megan really did look in her element here. She always looked nervous, like she wasn’t ready to be herself. I was still concerned about her, and that wasn’t about to change for a long while, but...

“You look happy.”

“Tonight’s a good night, yeah,” she replied, looking beyond me. “Zelda’s gone.”

“Did she see us hug?” I asked instinctively. Megan simply rolled her eyes, albeit with a smile, and walked off.

“Don’t be too much of a bad boy,” she told me jokingly, her last words to me that night. “Behave.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself as I watched her leave. I guess I was a little naive. I heard that Megan was changing and thought things would be all serious, or she’d only be sadder or something. Maybe I was wrong. I guess this was what letting go was all about. Things had a way of working themselves out.

I checked my watch and realized I’d have a decently long walk home. A cheerful ‘farewell’ to Sydney later and I was putting on my coat, the events of the night playing out in my mind. Athena, Megan ... even Zelda. Things would work out.

I had a lot to think about, but one of the most striking things was this: I wasn’t unhappy. I felt like I should have been, but the whole time I walked back home, I couldn’t stop thinking about the three most important girls there.

Megan was happy. Megan was actually happy. She was letting go. I mean, she was always a bit more at home at a party than I expected, but when she walked away from me, there was something in her eyes. Like she was finally being that high school girl she always wanted to be or something.

For a long time, I worried about Athena. Her relationship was clearly bad for her in some way, but now, she was breaking free. In her own way. It could be our little secret. That wasn’t the worst thing in the world, was it? Maybe this would even improve her relationship somehow, or at least make her feel more comfortable in it.

I expected to feel bad about Zelda, but ... I didn’t. There was something comforting in the distant way we talked at the party. It was like Nicole was right all along, and time would heal all wounds. Zelda and I would be okay, and we could be friends. Even if Zelda was pissed at me right now – and I guess she had her reasons to be – things were okay. Nicole was right.

Nicole...

Throwing stones at Nicole’s window made me feel like such an immature boy, and it wasn’t easy to find them in the snow, but it wasn’t like she was above throwing stones either. Unfortunately, Nicole was a bit of a heavier sleeper than me, and I eventually ran out of stones, so I bit the bullet and called her, pacing back and forth in front of her window.

I rang her phone twice before she answered. “Mrrh,” she grumbled into the phone. “Who is it?”

“Hey Nicole, it’s Adam,” I replied, trying to smooth out my voice despite the cold making it quiver. “I was just thinking about you a lot tonight. Can I come in?”

“ ... Come in?” I heard rustling from the phone, then saw Nicole’s face come into view in the window. She had a mad case of the tired eyes, but even still, didn’t look impressed. “Jesus. What the hell are you doing out there?”

“Well, I just got back from the party, and I figured I’d say hi.”

“You figured you’d wake me up,” she corrected me, then sighed. “I’m on my way.”

“Thanks, love you,” I replied. She hung up. I walked over to her front door and shifted in place, staving off the cold, until Nicole opened the door, yawning.

“Sup,” she said flatly, vocal fry plaguing her voice. She looked around. “Who drove ya?”

“Oh, I walked back.”

“From Sydney’s?!” Nicole’s eyes were wide now. “You idiot, it’s like five miles away!” Without another word, she quickly ushered me inside. “We gotta be quiet, my parents are asleep,” she whispered after closing the door. “The fuck were you thinking, you absolute dolt?! You could get frostbite!” She grabbed my hand. “Jesus, you’re freezing.”

I couldn’t help but smile. Nicole had been freaking out about the cold since the North American blizzard that hit us in early January. She hated the cold. I didn’t even mind it, but it was nice seeing her care about me.

I took my boots off, then my coat, and joined her in her living room. She alternated between grabbing my hands and letting go, warming her own hands up afterwards. “Do you, like, want some cocoa, or...”

“Nicole, I’m fine,” I reassured her. “I like the cold.”

“The fuck you do, knucklehead,” she whisper-barked. “If you’re not dying of the cold why did you even call me?”

“I missed you.”

She eyed me for a few seconds, then rolled her eyes. “Yeah, okay. How was the party?”

“Oh, it was alright,” I replied nonchalantly. “Nothing, like, huge. Like the rest.”

“You don’t even seem to enjoy them,” she replied, draping her body over mine.

“This feels nice.”

“It’s to help with the cold,” she swiftly replied.

I couldn’t help but frown. “Why are you acting like being intimate with your own boyfriend is weird?”

She blinked twice at me, then removed her body off of mine. “I’m just being me, dude,” she replied flatly. “I talk like this all the time. You can’t expect me to be always cutesy. Plus, you kinda just woke me up.” Silence took us for a bit, and she sighed. “What do you want me to say? Sorry, I guess. I’ll let you know when I’m feeling like I want attention, and then we can cuddle on your terms or something.”

I wished she could just ... be uncomplicated sometimes, but Nicole was Nicole. I shook my head. “Whatever. Party was okay. Megan was there.”

“Yeah, Megan likes parties more than I thought,” Nicole thought out loud.

“Hey, that’s the first time I heard you just call her Megan.”

“Yeah, get used to it,” she replied annoyedly. “‘My name is Megan.’ It’s like all of a sudden she decided to be boring, and take everyone else down with her.”

“I actually thought she seemed ... happy at the party,” I admitted. “In this new, weird way. Like she wasn’t insecure anymore. What did you and her talk about on Monday anyway?”

“How much her new attitude stinks,” Nicole bluntly answered. “Turns out she’s going through some shit. I’m giving her her space, but that doesn’t have to mean I’m thrilled with how pissy she’s acting in the meantime.”

“I would have thought you’d be the first person to empathize if Megan’s going through a bad time,” I admitted.

“Not if it gets in the way of Council business. Sorry, but nothing gets in the way of that,” Nicole said diligently. “Not her, not you, not Dave, not-”

“Dave did something?”

“Enh,” she said with a shrug. “Doesn’t matter. Hey, if she’s happy at parties, maybe Megan will be bearable at Council, so that’s music to my ears.” She nestled into the couch. “Any drama with Zelda?”

I shook my head. “Zelda was there though. It was awkward.”

“For Megan or you?”

“Both, I guess. Megan wants to pretend she doesn’t exist. Zelda doesn’t believe in treating me like a friend yet, but I’m gonna take a page out of your book and just let time pass and see.”

“That’s not ‘taking a page out of my book’ so much as just listening to me, dumbass,” Nicole replied with a humorous grin. “All for the best though. I mean, we are monogamous now.”

I froze, then my face scrunched up. “We are?” I asked with some alarm. “I thought at the end of it you told me to just do whatever I wanted, and I’d reap what I sow or something.”

Nicole studied the alarm on my face, then raised an eyebrow, the humorous smile still on her face. “Okay, who did you fuck at the party?”

“No one!” I didn’t lie. Athena only sucked my dick. It wasn’t fucking. “I just thought that we were ... still open.”

“I guess I did kinda give mixed messages there,” Nicole admitted. “Okay. We’re monogamous starting now. So, who’d ya fuck at the party?”

A beat of silence passed. Nope, even with Nicole’s blessing this would be too much of a can of worms. I shook my head. “I said no one,” I reiterated, staring straight forward. “I’ll have to break the news to Sabrina.”

“I can if you want,” Nicole replied. “I get this is a weird unique situation. I thought about what you said. She was already in the car with us, so maybe hearing it from me will make things easier. I don’t wanna complicate things too much for ya.” She reached forward and ruffled my hair.

“Hey,” I complained, shooing her hand away and fixing my hair. “Maybe. I’ll think about it.” I’d need to break the news to Athena too. This was going to get messy. But... “I guess this is best for us, huh?”

“I mean, I already broke it off with everyone else. Should be a piece of cake for the guy that wanted us to be monogamous in the first place,” Nicole replied. “And who knows? Maybe we should shake it up every once in a while. Let’s be honest, things have been kinda tense.”

I avoided eye contact. I could hear Nicole scoff, then I felt her grab my shoulder. I looked back to see her face closer to mine. She moved her head forward and slowly kissed me on the lips. “I care, y’know,” she said slowly. “I care.”

“I wish you liked yourself more.” I had no idea where that came from, and evidently, so did she. She returned back to her place on the couch, and moved her head a few times, clearly in thought.

“Yeah, I guess that made things a lil’ tense too,” she admitted.

“Me saying it or...”

“My suicide attempts, yeah,” she admitted.

“Don’t ... call them that.”

“Fine, what do you want me to call them? Steve and Larry? You were so supportive in the beginning and now you wanna act like I don’t make stupid mistakes.”

I moved closer to her and cuddled up next to her. “Things are different when they’re real and in front of you,” I said slowly, nestling into her.

“When you say it like that, it just sounds like I’m too much to handle,” she said, her voice getting quieter. “Why do you think I never told you what was going on? If it’s too much, just break up with me. I can handle myself.”

“Please, Nicole,” I nearly begged. “Stop telling me to break up with you. Tell me how much you’d miss me if you broke up with me.”

“How many boys do you think I would have answered the door for?” she asked. I looked up at her, and she kissed my forehead. “Two, and one isn’t ever coming through that door again. So don’t even with the ‘I’m not special’ thing. I’m just not always going to say it in words.”

I grabbed her hand and kissed it, nuzzling into her a bit more. We lay like that, together on her couch, before sleep took the both of us, right there.

Thanks to the nuclear blast our friend group took in December, the lunch table had disbanded. I didn’t know where Carson went for lunch anymore, nor Jason, nor Zelda. Megan spent her lunchtimes in that little hallway near the caf now, and I occasionally joined her, though on Monday, it was very apparent I’d have to talk to someone else.

Nicole took the key to Room 203 away from me, so much to Sabrina’s dismay, she and I had to meet up in a hallway. We eventually found a relatively large area leading up to one of the tech classrooms. I swear I could recognize it from somewhere, but I couldn’t remember where. It looked relatively “over there” compared to the rest of the school, so it was ideal for a private discussion.

“So what’s up?” Sabrina asked as we sat down together against the wall.

I looked at her. She had this cute, hopeful smile on her face. This kind of, ‘hey Adam, did you bring me to this secluded area to have sex with me?’ smile. A part of me hated doing this. “Can I be blunt?”

“Um...” Tension began thickening in the air. “Sure?”

“Nicole wants me and her to be monogamous now.”

Sabrina looked at me for a few seconds, then looked away. “ ... And what do you want?”

“Whatever makes her happy.”

Even in her tense state, I saw her roll her eyes. “So that’s it, we’re just stopping? Just like that?”

“Yeah. I’m, uh, really sorry.”

“Did I do something wrong?”

“No, it’s just ... complicated. Stuff hit the fan, and Nicole kinda got in trouble because of what we did in Room 203 last time, and-”

“What?!” she asked, turning pink. “Adam! You said no one was going to catch us!”

I gestured guiltily at nothing. “I didn’t think about ... apparently, we were loud.” I was blushing too, but that was nothing compared to the three parts fuschia and one part purple on Sabrina’s face. “So I guess it’s good we’re stopping.”

“Who knows?” she practically squeaked.

“I do,” came Nicole’s voice from the top of the nearby stairs.

That really helped jog my memory of how I remembered this place. I groaned. “Nicole, save the speech,” I called out to the hallway.

“No speech,” she clarified, descending down the steps. She emerged into our view (we were sitting behind the stairs) and flipped her hair dramatically as she approached. “Don’t be embarrassed, Sabrina. What we had was fun, hopefully, and no one involved knows it was you.”

I coughed in discomfort, and Nicole turned to me unexpectedly. “Go on.”

“I, uh ... Athena might know. Knows. She knows.”

“Who’s Athena?!” Sabrina demanded.

“Some manic pixie dream girl,” Nicole answered. “Older than her boyfriend. He gets off to it. It’s weird.”

“Aren’t you kinda manic pixie dream girl?” I asked Nicole.

“Minus the pixie and dream parts,” Nicole answered with a wink.

I shook my head and turned back to Sabrina. “Jason’s girlfriend. Jason’s the guy who caught us in the hallway, so I think she already knew about us. No harm.”

Sabrina was still very pink. Cranberry cocktail. She turned away from me, towards the wall, and didn’t say anything, so I turned back to Nicole and mouthed, “I don’t think you helped.”

Nicole mouthed something I couldn’t decipher back. I just shrugged. Nicole overemphasized the words and mimed to help her just the sentence across: “You were the one who said Athena saw her.”

I mouthed back, “What should I have done, lied?!”

“I’m emotional support here!” Nicole argued silently.

“Then emotionally support!” I mouthed.

Nicole rolled her eyes and cleared her throat, moving towards Sabrina and sympathetically rubbing her shoulder. “C’mon Sab,” she coaxed. “You know how I’m kind of known for sleeping around the school?”