Chapter 2: Friends and Friends of Friends

“Us Pretty Girls, we do crazy like you’ve never seen before,” Katherine said.

Then, she closed the bathroom door and I was left sitting naked on her bed. I looked down at my shriveled pecker and decided that the first order of business was to fix my state of undress before Katherine was done cleaning herself up.

I quickly found my jeans and underwear on the floor, but I couldn’t find my shirt from the mess on the bed. Hesitantly, I sifted through the assortment of clothing Katherine had shed during our ... experience. Eventually, I found my shirt underneath her bra, which was still slightly warm when I gingerly moved it to the side.

After I’d gotten myself dressed and tidied up, I glanced back at the bathroom door and judging by the sound of running water coming from the other side, I figured I had a moment to gather my thoughts.

I took a deep breath.

... Holy shit.

Did I just lose my virginity?

With Katherine Miller??

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I was unconscious during the act, and I certainly knew what was going on, but the reality hadn’t had a chance to settle in until now. Between the hectic excitement of the moment itself to the rather intense conversation we’d had afterward, there wasn’t really a lot of time for me to come to grips with what had just transpired – I just lost my virginity to one of the Pretty Girls.

Then another thought hit me, and this time, the realization wasn’t nearly as pleasant.

Had I betrayed Bea? As far as I knew, we weren’t close friends or anything, but she was certainly the friendliest person I knew, and I already knew I WANTED to have her be a close friend if the opportunity ever arose. Not to mention, Katherine seemed pretty convinced that Bea might ACTUALLY have a thing for me, even though she did admit it wasn’t 100% guaranteed when I pointed out that it might just be because of my similarity to this ‘Charlie’ guy.

But that wasn’t the real problem. The real issue was slightly less appealing: I just remembered I had rejected Bea’s offer to go to her party by saying, ‘Sorry, I don’t really do parties’.

And yet, here I was, at a party. And I’d just had sex with Katherine, someone who she shared a very troubling history with.

I’m an idiot, I know.

Before I was done mentally sorting through all the ways I could try to explain things to Bea, Katherine finished up her shower and I heard the bathroom door click open.

I looked up and saw her peek out from the narrow opening in the door. She reached out with her hand and pointed to her clothes, which were still scattered on the bed.

“Could you grab those for me? I think I’d better wear the same clothes so that when we go back downstairs, it doesn’t look TOO obvious,” she said.

“Sure, sure,” I said, getting up to gather her clothes.

Katherine smirked as she took the clothes from me, and said, “Though, there’s nothing I can do about the post-orgasm glow.”

I blushed, and before I could embarrass myself with a lame reply, Katherine laughed at my expression and closed the door again.

We certainly seemed to be on friendlier terms now, Katherine and I.

It wasn’t long before she came out of the bathroom fully dressed and looking almost identical to how she did before we’d first come up to her room. The only difference was that the flush from the alcohol had faded considerably and was now replaced by a softer, more subtle ‘glow’, as Katherine had put it.

God, she was the loveliest girl I’d ever seen.

She slipped on her black-rimmed glasses and glanced at the digital clock on her nightstand.

“Christ, it’s been over an hour! Everyone definitely knows we didn’t just come up here to ‘talk’,” she muttered.

I cringed. I hadn’t considered how this might affect her reputation, especially as one of the Pretty Girls. I knew how powerful gossip could be – that was how I even knew about Katherine in the first place, after all.

“Sorry about that...” I said, “I promise I won’t tell anyone about it.”

“I didn’t know you had any friends to tell,” she teased.

I opened my mouth to say something back about how I did have one friend, Bea, but I quickly stopped myself. Katherine seemed to notice and her teasing smile faded.

“Are you still thinking about Bea? You really don’t have anything to feel guilty about, you know. This was all my idea to begin with,” she said.

I sighed, “I know, but I still feel a bit bad about what I did. I know the whole point was to make her jealous by coming to your party instead of hers, but I can’t help but feel like she’ll be more upset about the fact that ... we–”

“The fact that we had sex,” Katherine said, finishing my sentence for me.

I nodded, blushing a bit at the memory.

“Bea gave me her number last week, so I was thinking maybe I should call her before she finds out from a rumor,” I said.

“Nope. Terrible idea. The worst actually,” she said.

“Huh? Why? Wouldn’t it be better if she found out from me personally?”

Katherine shook her head.

“God, you’re such a guy! Think about it like this. She gave you her number because she wanted to get closer with you, right? How do you think it’ll make her feel if the first call she receives is news that you just screwed her ex-best-friend at a different party, right after you declined to go to hers?”

“Oh,” I said dumbly, “right.”

Something else she had said scratched at my attention, though.

“Wait, did you just say ex-best-friend?” I asked.

Katherine rolled her eyes (and did I ever mention how her long eyelashes fluttered when she did that?).

“I thought you’d already figured it out; the thing that happened with Charlie also broke up our friendship. We used to be joined at the hip, all the way through middle school and half of high school,” she explained. “Anyways, just don’t call her and meet me at my usual place on Monday, we’ll discuss what to do with Bea then.”

I nodded. It was reassuring to know that Katherine seemed to be taking it so seriously. Then, I started to make my way over to the bedroom door, ready to go back down to the party.

Katherine didn’t seem to notice and was instead looking off into space, a thoughtful expression lining her handsome features. After a moment, she snapped back to reality. I gave her a questioning look but she waved me off and gestured to the door.

“For now, let’s do some damage control,” Katherine said with her classic casual smirk.

Then, with a Pretty Girl on my arm, I rejoined the party.

True to her word, Katherine hardly paid any attention to me for the rest of the night and spent most of her time making rounds among all her friends. I couldn’t quite tell what she was telling them, but judging from how she’d used the term ‘damage control’, I assumed she was trying to mitigate the spread of any particularly foul rumors about us.

Not knowing anybody else at the party (because I’m still technically a loner, remember?) I mostly stood off to the side, near the front door where there were fewer people.

I scanned the area and saw no sign of Justin, and I almost felt a little bad for the guy. I mean, the fact that he was crushing on Katherine was plain as day, even though she was way out of his league (not that I can talk), and he’d just watched as she took a random guy up into her bedroom. I imagined that he must have left the party in a pretty bitter mood.

I even considered telling him the truth to offer some consolation and telling him that Katherine didn’t actually like me and that it was a ruse. But then, I remembered how he’d treated me like shit when I first came to the theater room a week ago, and most of my pity for him disappeared.

Then, I briefly entertained the idea of telling him the nitty-gritty details of how sex with Katherine felt if only to see the look on his face. Petty, I know, but he didn’t have much going for him in the not-being-a-jerk category, and besides, I would never actually do that. I sure as hell wasn’t going to risk betraying Katherine’s trust, especially when it seemed like my relationship with Bea was already in jeopardy.

“Can you stop grinning like that? It’s creepy.”

I blinked and zoned back in.

In front of me was the same, short girl that had opened the front door for me. She’d taken off her beanie, revealing a messy bun of dark-brown hair, and the bright red flush of her cheeks told me she had been drinking quite a bit.

“Excuse me?” I asked.

She pointed a finger in my face, and teetered on her feet, almost falling over.

“You’ve just been standing in the corner the whole time, smiling like a creep, so I came over here to tell you to knock it off,” she said, her slurred words barely intelligible. “You’re ruining the vibe.”

I shrugged.

The girl narrowed her eyes and glared at me, then let out a big burp.

“I bet you were reliving what you did with Katherine, weren’t you? Creep,” she said, wiping her mouth with the back of her sleeve.

“Stop calling me a creep,” I said, frowning, “Also, I don’t think I need to remind you that KATHERINE was the one who took me upstairs, not the other way around.”

“Whatever, it’s still your fault that Justin’s all pissed now,” she said. Then, in a quieter voice, she added, “And I’m just worried about her. I didn’t think she would do something so impulsive, considering her ex and all...”

“You mean Charlie?” I asked.

The girl looked up at me, surprised. “She even told you about him?”

“Well, more like she shouted his name while we were, uh...”

Then, the girl laughed, and it was pretty clear she was laughing at ME, rather than the situation. Unfortunately, this also caused her to topple over into my arms, unable to keep her already wavering sense of balance. She was light as a feather, and it felt like I was holding a child. Even more unfortunately, this very small individual had more to drink than her small frame could handle, and she promptly threw up on the floor beside me.

“Oh, shit!” I said, quickly stepping out of the way.

“Urgh...” the girl groaned in my arms.

I wasn’t very experienced with what to do in situations like this (because this was my first party, remember?), so I kind of dragged-slash-carried her limp body away from the puddle of puke and set her down on an empty sofa.

I grabbed a tissue from a box lying on the floor nearby and handed it to her, but she didn’t even seem to recognize what it was for, so I took the liberty of wiping away the remaining gunk from her lips for her. Then, I gently pried the solo cup from her hand and looked around for a place to put it.

A guy I didn’t recognize came over and asked what was going on.

I gestured to the puddle of puke and said, “Uh ... I think she had a bit too much to drink.”

“Again? Anna always does this,” he said, shaking his head. “Good job on the save, though, she could’ve hurt herself. I’m gonna go grab some water so just sit tight for a second.”

Thankfully, I didn’t have to babysit for too long because a second later, Katherine saw what was happening from across the room and came back to my little corner to step in.

“Oh, Anna, girlie. You are totally wasted. Here, let me help you up,” Katherine said, taking her out of my arms.

In a daze, Anna continued to giggle hysterically. When she realized that Katherine was now carrying her, she asked, “Is it true that you shouted Charlie’s name while you were having sex with him?”

Katherine’s eyes went wide, and she swung her eyes to me, with an expression that said, ‘I thought you said you wouldn’t talk to anyone about this’.

I held up my hands.

“Sorry, sorry! She was saying some stuff about how you weren’t over your ex or something, so I was trying to explain...” I said.

Katherine huffed and pointed a stern finger at me.

“No more. You got it? We talk on Monday,” she said. I briefly wondered if she had any younger siblings because she seemed quite used to being in charge, not to mention she’d called me ‘good boy’ twice.

Katherine looked down at her friend, who was now completely knocked out in her arms. Then, she glanced at her watch and turned to the crowd, promptly announcing that it was time to wrap things up.

I stepped toward her and offered to help clean up while she took care of Anna, but Katherine shook her head.

“We got things covered over here, we’re pretty used to cleaning up after ourselves. Just remember, Monday, okay?”

And with that, she shooed me off.

I didn’t have anything to drink but I could hardly remember the trip home. The combination of going to my first party and losing my virginity in one night, not to mention everything I had to think about with Bea, was too much for my teenage brain, and I was on the verge of short-circuiting by the time I rolled into my driveway.

My parents were already asleep, not that it would really matter (I’ll get into that another time), so I took a quiet shower to try to wash out the smell of weed and booze and brushed my teeth.

Not knowing just how tired I was, I practically collapsed onto my bed. I was out cold within seconds.

Monday was going to be hectic.

Sunday was painfully uneventful.

I spent the day trying not to tear my hair out worrying about what I would do at school the next day. I never got the chance to exchange phone numbers with Katherine, and I’d been explicitly ordered not to call Bea, so I was basically just sitting at home doing nothing.

I had to admit: I didn’t think the thought of upsetting Bea would worry me this much.

In my head, I’d kept telling myself that we weren’t even that close, and that was still technically the truth. But, it didn’t change the fact that Beatriz was the first and only friend I’d made after several weeks of being alone in a new school, and while I hadn’t originally considered the possibility at first, it seemed like it could really be a possibility that she had a thing for me.

Those two weeks when Bea had consistently gone out of her way to talk to me in the hallways were easily the most fun I’d had at school since transferring. Not to mention, those casual kisses were ... well, they were kisses! Who would pass up a smooch from a girl like Bea?

The thought of losing all of that, of losing Bea, actually scared me quite a bit. While it was true that Katherine and I were on friendly terms now too, and thus I wouldn’t go back to being COMPLETELY alone, I knew that I would regret it if I let Bea slip through my fingers.

That’s why on Monday, I went to school prepared for the worst, and it was a good thing I did.

First of all, you won’t believe just how quickly gossip gets passed around at school. Especially when the gossip is about a Pretty Girl.

Before I even made it through the front door, I’d gotten four high-fives from guys telling me congratulations, two threats from a couple of guys that had the same vibe as Justin, and more than a dozen strange looks from random girls. I couldn’t tell if it was curiosity about the guy that Katherine Miller fucked, or silent judgment of the fact that I was obviously way below her league, but the attention certainly wasn’t friendly.

This treatment kept up pretty steadily during all of my morning classes, and I didn’t see Beatriz or any of her friends a single time. I hoped it wasn’t because they were avoiding me, but I had a bad feeling.

By the time lunch rolled around, I was grateful for the excuse to head to the relatively secluded theater room, and all the stress and extra attention was beginning to wear me out.

I peeked in through the window on the door and saw that the circle of students sitting and eating on the stage was smaller than last time.

Remembering how awkward it had been when I’d just barged in last time, I decided to knock first. Katherine perked up and saw me through the little window, and quickly made her way over. The sight of the stunning brunette running towards me was almost enough to get rid of all my fatigue.

She opened the door and looked at me blankly.

When I didn’t move, she rolled her eyes and said, “Well come inside then, we don’t have all day.”

She led me over to the stage and motioned for her friends to open up some room for me, which they did rather begrudgingly.

I recognized the girl who sat next to Katherine as Anna, the girl who drunkenly talked to me at the party, and I waved at her. She waved back and then looked down rather sheepishly. I figured she was just embarrassed about almost throwing up on me, but I was glad to see that at least one person didn’t seem to completely hate my guts.

Everyone else pointedly ignored me and the circle was silent.

Katherine noticed, and after a moment, she threw up her hands with an exasperated sigh.

“What is it with you people!? It’s not like we’ve never had new additions to the group!” she said.

Nobody looked her in the eye and it remained silent.

Katherine crossed her arms.

“Okay, fine. Jack is here whether you like it or not, so we’ll just settle our differences now. Why do you all seem to hate him when you don’t even know him?”

I remembered asking myself the same question, and not knowing the answer. I looked down at my hands and tried not to look pitiful. I’m not someone with a fragile ego, but still. This kinda stuff can hurt sometimes.

“I don’t hate him,” Anna chirped up from the side.

Katherine smiled and said, “And you’d better not, because you fucking owe the guy after almost barfing all over him.”

Anna giggled.

“I don’t hate him, but I don’t understand what you like about him,” said someone else, who I didn’t recognize. “I mean, look at him.”

“Yeah, why’d you suddenly invite him to the party?” someone else added.

“And what was that ‘revenge’ thing you said at the beginning?”

“Also, why’d you fuck him?” said a girl to my left, and when Katherine didn’t reply, she added, “you DID fuck him, right?”

Katherine sighed and said, “That’s gonna require some explaining, and to be honest, with the way you guys are treating Jack, I’m not really sure if I feel confident you guys won’t judge me.”

“Oh, come on, Kat,” said the girl, “you know we won’t judge you. We just wanna know what’s going on.”

The others nodded in agreement and Katherine looked at me as if to ask for permission to tell them. I shrugged and nodded. This wasn’t my story to tell anyway.

“Okay,” Katherine began, “You all already know the story about what happened between me, Bea, and Charlie, right?”

Everyone nodded. I was slightly surprised because I hadn’t expected EVERYONE to be in the loop of such a personal history, but I guess that’s just how Katherine’s friend group rolled. They were a tight-knit community, and suddenly it made a bit more sense why I was being treated like such an outsider.

“I presume you all noticed how Bea has been showing some interest in Jack, too,” she continued.

Everyone nodded again. It made sense – like I said before, the rumor-mill is a powerful thing. Katherine took a deep breath before saying the next part.

“I fucked Jack because I thought that if I stole the boy who Bea had a thing for, I could get back at her for taking Charlie away from me.”

Someone dropped their fork and it clattered on the hardwood floor of the stage, but other than that, the room was utterly silent.

Eventually, someone said, “Kat ... that’s pretty fucked up.”

Katherine squeezed her eyes shut and bowed her head between her knees.

“I know,” she muttered.

“And what about Jack...?” Anna asked. At the party, she had been quite accusatory of me, but now that she knew the truth, it seemed like her opinion on the matter was quickly shifting.

“Jack’s been really understanding about the whole thing,” Katherine said, “which is why he’s sitting here with us today because I appreciate how he handled my fuck-up.”

“So he’s your friend now because he forgave you for ... fucking him?” one of the guys asked dubiously. “Forgive me if I’m wrong, but didn’t you technically do HIM a favor? Also, Justin isn’t gonna be happy about this.”

“That’s not the point!” Anna hissed, elbowing him in the ribs.

The girl to my left glared as well, and said to him, “Liam, how would you like it if someone took advantage of you and fucked you just to get back at someone else?”

The guy, Liam, shrugged.

“I’d be pretty pissed, I guess. But at the same time, this is sex with Katherine we’re talking about–”

The girl to my left just shook her head again.

“Fucking boys,” she sighed.

“Also, Justin has nothing to do with this, because Katherine doesn’t owe him anything. It’s not like they’re going out,” Anna added.

Liam shrugged again.

“Just saying, he won’t be happy.”

Katherine held up her hands and tried to gather everyone’s attention again.

“I also have another announcement to make,” she said, “I am officially over Charlie for good. I agree that what I did to Jack was seriously wrong, and it’s made me realize that it’s about time I moved on.”

There was some scattered applause from the group. It seemed like the whole Charlie thing had been a pretty serious cause of concern among her friends.

“I’m happy for you,” said Anna, leaning over to hug her friend.

“Thanks.”

Then Katherine turned her attention back to the rest of the group.

“Okay, to sum it all up! I fucked up, but Jack forgave me and now he’s part of the group. And we shall never talk of Charlie again!” she announced.

This time, everyone seemed to be on the same page and cheered.

The girl to my left turned to me and shook my hand. “I’m Paige, Kat’s best friend. Nice to meet you,” she said.

“Hey! I’m her best friend!” Anna shouted from the other side of the circle, prompting the two of them to get into a playful bout of banter.

The other three in the circle all introduced themselves in quick succession. There was Thien, a Vietnamese transfer student who’d transferred a year before I had, and Daniel, a hulking Ukrainian guy with a surprisingly high-pitched voice. Then there was Liam, who’d made the joke about wanting to have sex with Katherine, but otherwise seemed pretty normal.

Liam leaned over to me and whispered in my ear loud enough for everyone to hear, “Tell me all the details about what Kat was like in bed later. She’s been on a total dry streak ever since Charlie, so this is pretty rare for her.”

Katherine swatted at him with her hand before wrapping herself around my arm.

“Unlike you perverts, Jack here doesn’t place such importance on that kind of thing,” she said, raising her chin and sniffing in disdain.

Liam smirked at me.

“Well...” I said, waggling my head.

Katherine gasped and looked at me in mock scandal. That’s theater kids’ humor for you.

Still, everyone laughed, and I laughed along. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d laughed like this in a group setting, and for the first time since I’d moved from New York all the way here to California, I felt like I might have a place I could fit in.

I’ll be honest, it felt good.

It would take some more time before everyone opened up to me if they ever did, but I was willing to make the effort; just because I wasn’t big on theater and weed didn’t mean I was willing to go back to being utterly friendless.

Also, I really did appreciate that Katherine had taken my side like she had. Not to sound like a sissy, but I wasn’t sure what I would have done if Katherine hadn’t been so adamant about keeping me in the group. She was quickly proving to be someone I really respected and valued.

Noticing that I didn’t bring any lunch with me, Paige gave me a piece of her sandwich (although the part she gave me was mostly crust with almost no filling), and sitting there, chewing on bread crust with my newfound friends, you could say that I was pretty much in bliss.

Unfortunately, you might also have realized by now that I was forgetting something very, very important.

Bea.

I know, I know. How could I forget when I’d spent all that time earlier talking about how much I cared about her and how scared I was to lose her friendship? I have no excuse, except that Katherine kept stealing glances at me, and well, when a lovely girl like her does that, it’s hard to keep your head straight.

Regardless, it seemed the universe had something in store for me anyway, and my happy lunchtime with my new friends was cut short by a sharp rap on the door.

Everyone simultaneously looked over and saw a pale boy with glasses standing outside.

“It’s Eric,” Daniel said, and he got up to open the door.

I leaned over to Katherine and whispered, “Who’s Eric?”

“Don’t you remember? I told you, Eric is the one who usually acts as the ‘carrier pigeon’ between Pretty Girls,” she explained.

“Ah, right. The gay one,” I said, remembering.

Katherine rolled her eyes and swatted at me lightly.

Then, Daniel called over from the door. “Kat! Apparently this one’s private so Eric says he should tell you in person!”

“I’m gonna tell everyone anyway, so just say it!” Katherine shouted back.

Daniel shrugged and opened the door wider for Eric to step in.

“So? What is it?” Paige asked him impatiently. I got the sense that she was one of the gossipmongers of the school.

Eric ignored her and looked seriously at Katherine. “It’s from Beatriz. She wants to talk to you IN PERSON after school today. She said to meet at the back of the school, near the old bleachers.”

Everyone went quiet. Even though I hadn’t been at this school for very long, I knew that this wasn’t standard procedure: the Pretty Girls almost NEVER talk to each other in person. And knowing the actual history between Bea and Katherine made it even weirder that Bea would reach out to Katherine first.

Katherine, for her part, didn’t look too fazed.

“Alright. Thanks for the message, Eric,” she said.

Eric blinked.

“Aren’t you surprised?” he asked hesitantly.

“Nope. Bea has always been super proactive, even when we were kids. This is totally her,” she explained.

Then, right before Eric was about to leave, he added, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen her this upset, though.”

“Oh. That is totally NOT her.”

Despite not knowing Beatriz for very long, even I could tell that the word ‘upset’ just wasn’t something that could often be applied to her. I gulped and looked over at Katherine, whose pretty features were now lined with worry.

This was getting messier than I’d imagined.

After the final bell, Katherine and I sat on the bottom steps of the old bleachers and waited for Bea together. Immediately after Eric had left, Katherine insisted that while Bea had only asked for her, it only made sense if I came too, and ordered me to meet her outside her calculus classroom.

From there, we walked together to the meeting spot and got some stares from the other students along the way. This was probably the start of the rumors that went around the next day that Katherine and I were dating, which Katherine immediately denied and put a stop to. On a side note, I must admit, it was quite flattering to know that people could actually believe I was going out with her, even if it was just a stupid rumor.

While we sat on the bleachers and waited, Katherine explained the game plan to me.

“Bea’s obviously going to be pissed at you for ditching her party and coming to mine instead. But this isn’t much of an issue because we can just explain that it was all my idea and that it was my fault because I forced you to reject her offer even though you actually would’ve accepted,” she said.

That made sense. I nodded.

“The real problem is gonna be the fact that we had sex,” she continued, not batting an eye. “To her, it’s still just a rumor and she probably wants to confirm the facts with me, which is why she asked to see me in person. And if Bea actually cares about you, then she’s gonna be pissed when she finds out it’s true.”

“Right, and we don’t want to piss off Bea,” I said, “so what do I do?”

“Nothing,” Katherine said.

“Nothing?”

“Yep. Nothing. You’re only gonna make things worse if you try to protect me, so it’s easier if you just let me take all the blame.”

I frowned.

“That doesn’t seem fair. Like I said before, I have pretty equal blame for not stopping you when I easily could’ve,” I said.

Katherine made her trademark smirk.

“But could you really have stopped me?” She asked, jutting out a hip and gesturing to herself. “Look me in the eyes right now and tell me you could’ve held yourself back from THIS.”

I looked at her wavy hair which was golden-brown in the November sun, and her magnificently soft curves which were still obvious through her loosely fitted outfit. She was the picture of easy-going, teenage beauty.

“I see your point,” I said.

Katherine laughed.

“Anyway,” she said, “just sit tight when Bea gets here, and I’ll figure out a way to get you two back on friendly terms.”