Chapter 7

The school was alight with scandal, at least amongst the boys, including the young boy who’d taken Patty out on a date. Some of them said he turned her gay. Others made jokes about volleyball girls. Vanessa said she knew it all along and was glad they finally came clean about who they were and that it was pretty romantic.

Tricia found that lying to everyone was actually much easier than she thought it was going to be. After her conversation with her parents it became much easier. Her mother was actually relieved, since she used the excuse of “figuring things out” to explain why she had gone awol so many times. She actually had gone to the woods, but not to explore, just to sit and thing. With all of that introspection completed, she promised that her mother would have her old daughter back. Her father asked her more probing questions. He wanted to know if she felt L, B, T, or Q, how long she’d been conflicted, and what the process of coming to this knowledge was like. He was careful with his words, and stressed his acceptance. He was so interested in the emotional innerworld of his daughter, but that left her slightly panicked. After answering a few questions with layers of web spun lies, she found herself scared of slipping up, so she retreated to muddled complicated non-responsive answers. Her mother sensed her daughter’s evasion and pulled her husband to back. Lester was a good man with a big heart, but sometimes he didn’t know when his earnest interest would change to pushiness. Their daughter didn’t need to be grilled now, even if it was with the best supportive intentions. She steered the conversation to the pragmatic; How were they to handle dates and sleepovers? Ali was no longer okayed for automatic sleepovers. Tricia didn’t fight them on that point, and Charlotte was relieved to see the wisdom in her daughter.

Her parents handled the news so well that Tricia felt utterly conflicted. On one hand it was really helpful that they believed the lie hook line and sinker. It meant she might even be able to spend more time with Coach Klein without arousing suspicion. On the other hand, it felt like a little bit of a blow that her own parents thought she was gay without even a little convincing. Had they thought she was all along? What did that say about her? Was she manish in some way? Plus, they were doting all over again for her first date-with-a-girl. Back when she first went to the movies with a boy, they were all taking pictures and fussing with her, which was fine at 13, but they were at it all over again at 16! It just felt weird, especially since it was just Ali whose mom was driving her over. It would have made so much more sense for her to go pick up Ali in her car, since Ali didn’t have a car yet, but Ali insisted that she be the one to pick Patty up.

“That’s Mrs. Vasquez’s car. Patty, do you want to make an entrance coming down the stairs.”

“Daaad, no, this isn’t some prom movie, just let me answer the door.”

She was dressed in jeans and a loose three quarter sleeved knit blouse with a boat neckline: relaxed, comfortable, and easy to dodge past her dad to rush down to the door. She swung it open a split second before Ali rang the bell.

“Hey, let’s go before they get the camer-what the?”

Ali smirked, “You like?”

Ali was completely changed. Gone was the bob cut, cute cheeked girl with the foul mouth. In her place, Ali wore loose khakis and a collared button up with a vest over top of it and a hat to match.

Tricia stared agape at her friend, especially bending down to look for her friend’s hair, instead seeing a close cropped cut, “Oh my god, Ali, your hair! What did you do?”

She smiled, “I got it cut today. These are for you.” From behind her back she whipped out a small bouquet of lilies.

Tricia was still agape as she took the flowers, suddenly feeling strangely angry. Ali was taking this seriously and putting effort into this. But of course, why wouldn’t she? But she wasn’t supposed to change who she was. She managed to stuff it all back and force out a thank you. She turned around to give them to her father who snapped a picture of a gape mouthed stunned daughter and her over the moon friend. She gave him the flowers, “Can you put these in water, I- we need to go, bye dad!”

She fled, taking Ali’s hand with her and Ali followed happily. She quickly convinced Ali’s mother to let her take Ali in her own car, of course, Ali told her that’d been the plan all along, which her mother confirmed.

“Hey, Sixy, relax,” Ali said as her mother drove away, “you seem stressed, it’s just me.”

“I know it’s just - this, is a lot, I mean, your hair is all gone!” she gestured to the new look.

“Chill, bae, I didn’t cut it all off,” Ali took her hat off in a sweeping gesture and the rest of her hair came tumbling out. “Nice, huh?” She’d gotten her hair shaved up the side, but only on one side. With a flip of the fingers, she looked completely back to normal (if a little lopsided).

“Oh crap, I thought you, you know, bzzzzt,” she gestured a face razor down the middle of her head.

“No, I just fig it might be fun to do sumdiff. I thought it was pretty cool? Jeez, you’re going to give me a complex here.”

“Oh yeah, no totes adorbs, I was just surprised - you know with the hat.”

“Good, as long as you still find me adorbs,” Ali smiled at her date. With a grin they got in the car to go.

“So where am I driving us?”

“Let’s start at the movies.”

As she pulled out, Ali teased her with a little singsong, “You find me adorbs, you find me adorbs.”

“Yeah, well, maybe not totes adorbs, maybe half-adorbs? At least some adorbs.”

“You goon!”

“Careful, you can’t hit the driver, or we might swerve and end up stuck in a ditch.”

“Don’t even play!”

Tricia relaxed finally. Ali was still Ali, despite the new look. Without the hat she was pulling off the cute city girl look pretty well. To anyone watching, they were just a pair of friends having a nice evening hanging out. To the rest of the school, though, they had a bit of a celebrity status. She didn’t have to worry about boys hitting on her, so she could dream about Mr. Klein without people wondering why she was still single. On their dates, she could just hang out with her best friend and laugh and have fun together, and it felt great. They weren’t exactly hot and heavy out in public, early on which worked well for Tricia.

Andrew was pretty surprised to hear about the new sapphic novelty buzzing about the school. When she managed to get away to go for a run he had to bring it up. They went on a three mile trail run with a good lot of elevation that brought them to a quiet secluded spot.

Panting he asked, “I heard an interesting rumor.”

Tricia groan, “I know, it’s a mess.”

He got a crooked smile, “Is it true? Cause if it is, I did not see that coming.”

“No! Wait, it’s not what you think.”

He crossed his arms, “Alright tell me what I think it is?”

“I am not cheating on you. I swear, you’re the only man for me.”

He grinned, “Interesting phrasing, I believe that.”

She rolled her eyes then pleaded, “You’re the only man, woman, or monster for me. You believe me, right? You know I love you right?”

She didn’t see his face. He’d turned around to stretch and crack his spine. “I’m still waiting for an explanation.” He paused, “Did you kiss her? Do I have something to worry about?” Her shoulders fell. What a mess she’d gotten herself into. He prompted her, “It’s okay, I’m listening.”

“Okay, you’re going to laugh when you hear it, but really, I’m kind of doing this for us.” She explained the whole incident, the day Ali returned and came out. Then after the first week of school when rumors were kicking off like wildfire. They were bad enough for Ali to question her, so if she said nothing, everything was going to come out. She explained that the only way she saw to fix it was to come out as a lesbian, that way no one would think it was weird if they hung out together. Plus with her friendship with Ali, that’d be even more believable. Except that she screwed it up cause she made Ali think she liked her but Ali really liked her and-.

Coach Klein busted out in a hurl of spittle unable to hold in his laughter anymore, “Oh god, stop, stop, this is too much. Oh man, this is precious, too precious.”

“So you believe me right?”

He was back to her, holding her shoulders, looking into her eyes with his gorgeous eyes and those unfairly long eyelashes and that handsome smile that still made her knees weaken. “You are incredible.” He tipped her head back into a sweat tinged kiss, like salted chocolate drizzled over lust. It deepened, flushing out reasoned thought and she flung her arms around him to keep from sinking and drowning in it.

“So you’re telling me that these perfect lips are kissing another girl’s lips?”

“I don’t, uhm.”

“It’s okay, I know you’re mine. Go on.”

“Yes.”

He guided her hand to his hardened manhood, “Good.”

“Wha-?”

“Don’t worry, honey, if anything, this proves you love me even more than I could have imagined.”

She looked at him with suddenly wide eyes. Of course, he was right, she loved him more than anything, more than air, but this was not how she thought he’d react. “What, I mean...”

“You should keep dating her. It’s the perfect-” he paused to pull her shirt off and she let him, “cover for us. Go on, let her kiss you.” He kissed her. “Every time you do, it is one more act of devotion you’re showing me, and proving just how much you love me. It all just makes me love you more.”

He caressed her cheek, “Let her touch you.” As he spoke, he let his hand wander down, “let her fingers touch you all over and every time she is, I want you to think of me, and my fingers. Think about my lips as she slips your clothes off.” He unclipped her sports bra and pulled it over her head. She stood before him topless in the setting sun, his lips tasting her sweat-salted nipples and driving her to aroused confusion.

She could only purr an acceptance of his orders. His words spoke of sapphic imagery as he teased and tasted her. Her fingers gripped his manhood desperately, wanting more and more to be plunged deep and be subsumed by him. He slipped behind her, his madhood pushed up against her bottom as she whined at the emptiness of her hands and other areas.

“I want you to tell me everything you’re let her do to you, every detail. Tell me.”

She opened her mouth to start talking, but his hands slipped under her shorts. Her brain was misfiring, feeling her lover’s magical fingers driving her insane as she talked about her girlfriend. There weren’t many hot and heavy details, so she tried to focus on talking the most about her first kiss.

“You’re not being fair,” she complained.

“Don’t stop talking, love.”

She whined reaching back to try to grab his cock, “But I want it, please.” It felt so weird to be talking about thinking about Ali, while she was getting so hot. She needed her lover’s hot hard cock inside her proving their love and her sexuality. “Please fuck me,” she begged. She’d never imagined those words falling from her lips. Those things had been the words of porn stars and fantasies, not for real life. But in this moment, she would have given anything to end the teasing and thoughts of Ali’s kisses as her sanity dripped out of her throbbing lips. It was too much for a straight girl to bear, she thought.

He dipped his finger inside, the angle of it giving delightful pressure to her clit and it snapped her mind into another world.

“You’ll kiss her for me.”

“Yes.”

“You’ll let her lick you and fantasize about me.”

“Always.”

“Do anything to her that I tell you to.”

“Yes, everything!” She couldn’t think straight anymore, her body shuddered and her knees gave way, clutching his hand. He caught her body from falling, his hand a sweaty slimy mess of juices.

On the way back home, she was silent in the car feeling queer. After being overwhelmed by an orgasm while imagining her fake girlfriend Alicia, she’d felt half crazed. He had finally let her get his cock and, as if possessed, she sucked it like a cock crazy whore. At least those were some of the words he used to describe her actions, and he wasn’t wrong. It’d been her own instrument of self flagellation, pleasing him was secondary to her own need to be punished. He finished inside her mouth and she coughed it up on the forest floor, feeling wretched. He’d whispered more sweet words to her that made everything better, and she felt bad for being so off. They were usually much better about cuddling after any chance they could get. Instead she was driving home with an itchy sports bra under a dirty shirt, a gooey mess in her panties, and pall over her mood. She shook it off, it was fine, she just needed a shower.

Except despite her mental decision to shake it off, she couldn’t. Things were different now. Andrew had made it clear, it was fine for her to be with Alicia. He understood that she was doing it for them and more to the point, he took it as an expression of love. She was going to be gay in public so that she could be his girl in private. It was a challenge set before her, and the competitor in her wanted to crush it.

So the next day, in school, she found herself preoccupied with boys. Not because she wanted any of them. They were nothing compared to her man. Instead she found herself trying to put herself into their mindset. She pulled her long hair back into a ponytail and up into a bun to try to see what it might feel like to have short hair. She’d never cut it, she loved the compliments he gave her about her hair. Plus, Ali liked to play with it from time to time, and it was an easy way to be intimate without having to be icky. But she did want to see how they saw the world. She didn’t bother with make-up either. Just jeans, a baseball team t-shirt, a sports bra and running shoes. The sports-bra was horribly uncomfortable to wear for a whole day, but if she was going to go butch it was either that or go braless, and she wasn’t trying to be on display for anyone.

She watched the boys and tried to figure out how they did there various walks. They had a different kind of body language. She tried to figure what kind of mindset gets you to sit with your legs spread wide for scratching. They had no shame, like at all especially not when checking out girls.

That was a bit of attention she decided she could do with less of. Fortunately, if she was going for this butch look, chances were it would cut down on that kind of attention. For the most part, she was right. But at her locker, there was one stare that was too egregious for her to deal with. So she decided to handle it how a guy might. She turned to Victor, an average sized guy with an underbite and asymmetric acne who wasn’t very good at hiding his staring.

“Dude, seriously, what are you even staring at?”

“I’m trying to figure that out. I mean, it looks like you’re trying to be a dude, but that ass is still giving me a chubby.”

She snorted, “Sounds kinda gay to me,” a few people chuckled at that.

“Blow me, you fuckin’ dyke.”

One of the guys on the football team that she’d befriended started to step in to defend her honor, but she called him off, “Naw Luke, I got this tiny punk ass prick.”

She’d had a few discussions about different lifting routines with Luke when she was getting on varsity Volleyball and he was getting on Varsity football. That may have been why Luke chuckled and said, “Cool, I gotta see this.”

Tricia towered over Victor, “Bro, you know I could absolutely break you, right? So do me a favor. Please, please say that again.”

“You know, my father told me never to hit a woman. But he ain’t never said anything about grabbing a dyke.”

He reached around and grabbed her ass, and she gasped. The moment stretched into eternity as she ran through and entire gamut of emotions, fear revulsion, disgust, shock, and violation. No, she wasn’t going to be a victim, she made the decision to absolutely fucking flip. She slammed him into the lockers, snapping his head back into them. He swatted a dazed punch at her that barely connected against her shoulder then head giving making her ear burn. A crowd gathered chanting “fight, fight” at the testosterone display. That lucky punch was the only punch she was determined to take. She wrapped him up in a headlock and squeezed him while he kept trying to hit her. Her instinct was to scratch him up, but she stopped her hand and clenched it into a balled fist. It was a lopsided affair, after all, she was much bigger and stronger than Victor. Mentally working herself up, she huffed and threw a single punch. She gave him an uppercut straight to the nose as she held him in the head lock before a hall monitor got to them and she let him go.

Sitting in front the principal was an embarrassing affair. She gotten a small cut on her knuckle from the punch and he’d gotten a bloody nose. From the look of them there was a clear winner of the fight.

Principal Lipman stood in front of the two of them. “This is a quandry. I’m going to have to notify both of your parents. Suspension is usually the way we handle fighting in school, but we’re got two first time offenders, so I’m sitting here wondering, what happened. Would either of you like to explain why you think it is that you’re here?”

Tricia looked down in sadness, averting her gaze. What a mess.

“Not a word from you Mr. Claybet? Nor you Ms. Walker?”

He sighed deeply while the two miscreants before him kept there peace. The young boy was looking straight forward with a fuming hatred burning behind his eyes, which was something he’d seen before. Alternately, the young lesbian girl was looking ashamed. He’d heard the rumors, it was his job to be aware of such things. He wasn’t going near that topic today, as it was irrelevant in his mind to the roughhousing that’d transpired.

“No? Alright, I’ll tell you what I know. I know that there were some words exchanged. I know that the first violent act was from you Ms. Walker.”

“But he-”

“AH! You had your chance to speak, do not interrupt me.” Principal Lipman launched into an Alan-Rickman-esque soliloquy of clipped tight faced verbiage. “As I understand it, Mr. Claybet threw the first punch. Frankly, I don’t care who said what, because you can always walk away from words. You both are in the wrong here. This incident sounds like it could have been avoided by mature behavior from either one of you. Sadly, you have both demonstrated a lack of judgement commensurate of a person years younger. If you were in middle school or freshman I’d be inclined to just have your parents take you home and call it a day. But as juniors in High School, I am wholly disinterested in any feeble explanations, please close the door Mr. Klein, I am with students right now.”

Both their heads turned to see the Health teacher had warily opened the door and invaded their scolding session. “I’m sorry, Mr. Lipman, but I thought I could be of some use here.”

“Thank you, Mr. Klein, you services are not required.”

“Mr. Lipman, if I could speak with you outside for a moment.”

Grudgingly, the old troll gave way and stepped out before offering the students a shady look. The pair talked outside in hushed tones while both fear and pride pumped through Tricia. She suddenly felt much better with Mr. Klein interceding on her behalf. She thought perhaps she should worry that this might raise questions, but seeing his friendly released so much tension.

An uncomfortable minute passed before Victor sneered at her, “This is such bullshit.”

“Shut up.”

The door opened abruptly, “Mr. Claybet, go to the nurse’s office and wait for your mother.”

Victor perked up catching a grin. He sneered at Tricia looking down at her with his victory. Escaping suspension or detention, Victor left barely suppressing his glee.

Tricia looked at the principal dumbfounded.

“Do you have something to say Ms. Walker?”

Unsure of herself, she sat back and closed her mouth.

“Very well, I had a brief talk with Mr. Klein about you athletes.” The way the word athlete dripped out of his mouth like a rotted fish told her that she was in deep trouble.

“A lot of you expect special treatment. I understand you’re the star of our Volleyball team. As an athlete you have additional responsibilities. It is clear that no matter who started this fight, as an athlete, you had the physical strength not just to win the fight, but to avoid it altogether. You need to take this responsibility seriously, because you can be very dangerous to the other students if you don’t reign in your more violent impulses. If that is not sufficient motivation, I should remind you that athletics is a privilege, not a right.”

He let his threat sit in the air for a moment. She crumbled looking down.

“Mr. Klein has had experience with athletes acting out, so for the next two weeks, you have an hour detention after school. You’ll report to his classroom and serve your detention there.”

“But practi-” she regretted it the moment the words slipped from her lips.

His nostrils flared and eyes went wide with rage, “Did you have something to add Ms. Walker? Because if you do, then I am sure I could also add something more.”

She cast her eyes down and shook her head.

“Very wise. Wait outside now.”

She slunk away. He took time to write her a letter to give to her parents and for them to sign and return. She ended up waiting in the office until the last period. Returning to class, the whole room was a twitter with whispers about her fight. She wanted to shrink away and die.

She felt like an isolated spectacle, even as Ali tried to take her hand to console her. One of the guys finally broke through her shield and whisper to her, “Nice uppercut, Barboza.”

The guy next to him said, “Yeah, Victor’s a dick. I just wish I could have seen it, dude.”

She stifled a wry chuckle in amazement and thought. Boys are the strangest creatures. She decided she didn’t really want to learn their language.

“Princess Diana, what happened?” The bell had rung and they were in the halls heading out. She’d resisted talking about it in class, and now she had to go.

“I want to tell you but I don’t have time.”

“Why not?”

“Detention, two weeks. I don’t even know if I can stay on the team.”

“No, Diana? Oh my god, why? No, we can’t - they can’t just- there’s no way, we’re screwed! That’s so unfair!”

Ali followed her all the way to Mr. Klein’s room. He was waiting for her patiently and she saw him see her from inside. His stupid intervention had landed her two weeks away from her team. She wanted to be with him too, but she didn’t want to lose out on the team. Fine, if he wanted her to kiss, Alicia, then he better be careful what he wished for.

Driven by a mix of residual adrenaline, caring sympathy, undirected anger, and confused love, Tricia took her girlfriend by the face and planted a deep kiss on her. It was a singular phenomena unlike any of the sweet pecks they’d shared on dates. Her kiss was raw, filled with the passion of anxiety and guilt. Open mouthed and completely inappropriate for school grounds, Tricia kept indulging in the vampiric liplock until she drained Ali of words and breath. Tricia’s stomach tingled, and all of her muscles felt a tickle as if they all wanted to flex for no real reason. She wanted to shake or shudder or scream or move or do anything but be ripped apart by the two pairs of eyes looking at her both with love and lust. It was at once one of her most passionate, most sensual, and least sexual kisses.