Chapter 9

"You try helping him up, and see how you do," said Jenna, still fighting off giggles.

"Hey, it's not my fault you tugged just as I was about to stand up," I shot back.

Anya came over and pulled us both effortlessly to our feet. "Come on, people. Roughhousing time is over. You-" she pointed at Jenna, "-need to finish studying. And you-" her finger moved over towards my direction, "-have a girlfriend who's looking for you."

"Thanks," I replied as I headed toward the door. "Where is she?"

"Restroom."

I turned around, a look of comic disbelief on my face. "She's looking for me there?"

Two hands snaked around my head to cover my eyes. "Considering the way you've become every girl's honorary girlfriend around here, no one would bat an eye if you did," said Nat. "Guess who?"

"That's right, Nat; build up your boyfriend's self-esteem by telling him he's the most feminine guy you know," said Jenna, winking at us.

"Oh, he knows I know exactly how masculine he is," replied Nat. "After last night, there-"

"Natalie!" I interrupted, scandalized.

"Wow, I didn't think anything could make him blush like that," commented Anya. "But seriously, guys, I need to finish a paper, and Jenna really needs to finish studying."

"Yes, Mistress Chase," Nat and I chorused as we walked out the door.

"Don't make me break out the whip."

"Every girl's honorary girlfriend? Since when?"

"Well, let's see. Anya... check. Jenna... check. Cara... check. And you're not going to tell me all you and Katie talk about is physics and Latin?" She continued when I didn't say anything. "After Jenna, you're easily the person people here feel most comfortable talking to. And if she wasn't so adept at listening and defusing any latent homophobia people might have, you might be in the running for school confidante."

"Thanks, but no thanks." I shuddered theatrically, though with more than a bit of real feeling. "Jenna can keep her title."

"Personally, I'd like you all to myself."

"Last time I checked, you do."

"I meant... right now."

"Um, Nat, we're still in public-"

"In that case, my room or yours?"

"We are just outside my room, y'know..."

The door had barely closed behind us when she tackled me onto my bed. "If I wasn't so sure you'd never cheat on me, I'd be as jealous as the proverbial green-eyed monster," she breathed into my ear.

"Glad I inspire such confi-"

For the record, it's really, really hard to talk when someone is sticking their tongue down your mouth. And besides, who'd want to talk at a time like this? Still, after a minute or so, one does run out of oxygen. We broke off the kiss gently, and she moved down to rest her head on my chest as I stroked her hair. "Did you switch shampoos?"

"Yeah, do you like it?"

"I like both, but I like the lavender a bit more. The apple cinnamon one you had before always made me want to get dessert."

"And what does the lavender make you want?"

"Honestly? What we're doing right now for the rest of the night, and our libidos be damned."

She turned over, and rested her elbows on either side of me. "You're nice, charming, and sensitive, plus all you want to do is cuddle," she said, almost accusingly. "You're every girl's dream come true."

"Just not yours, not right now?" I reached up and twirled a lock of her hair around my fingers. "That's not all I want to do, but Nat, look at us! Most kids our age are just starting to date under heavy supervision, and we're lucky enough to have all this time to ourselves. We can easily screw this up if we go too fast. And I really don't want to screw this up."

"So what's too fast?"

"I leaned up and kissed her. "Tell you what," I said breathlessly a few moments later, "I promise I'll start pushing the boundaries a lot more in the future. Wait for me?"

She made a face before smiling crookedly. "If that's the best deal I'm gonna get, then I guess I'll just have to take it," she said softly before her lips came down to meet mine again.

In any other story, Nat would have made a call (for someone to cover for her), and we'd have spent the night together. Despite what I said about taking it slow, more than a few things can happen between two teenagers attracted to each other spending the night on the same bed. And no, I'm not going to draw you a diagram. <sigh> However, we do live in the real world (okay, quasi-real), so Nat left a few minutes later.

The next day was a Wednesday. Other than a trig quiz and an in-class writing assignment, the day's workload was fairly light. After spending an hour or so going over my class notes and adding a thing or three (yes, I take academics seriously; sue me), I headed over to the library. Not for any books, mind you; the library coffee cart made the best coffee available on campus.

For a blustery November afternoon, the library lobby was surprisingly empty. I spotted Cara in a corner, and headed over after grabbing my cappuchino. In case you're wondering, Cara was rather difficult to miss, even in a crowd--her shoulder-length ash blonde hair and silvery gray eyes did tend to make her a tad striking. "Hey there," she greeted me as I sat down on the couch beside her. "How's things?"

"Pretty good. Where's everyone?"

"Around, I guess. Sarah and her group are rehearsing their skit for the talent show, so that's half the library crowd right there. There's also an impromptu basketball tournament going on in the gym."

"Ugh, the talent show. The worst excuse for a social gathering ever invented."

"Let me guess, you won't be doing anything for it."

"I wish. Nat's been bugging me about doing something for it for the last few weeks, and I suspect I'll end up doing something--if only to make her happy."

"Aw, that's sweet. Of course, I should supply the stereotypical guy's response to that as well." She made a whipping motion.

"Ha ha. Very funny. Next thing you know, Nat'll be riding me into the dining hall on all fours, yelling, 'Giddyap, horsie.'"

She made an unsuccessful attempt to smother her giggles. "You said it, not me."

"True enough." I assumed a more serious tone. "Sorry to hear about you and Ken."

Her shrug was eloquent in its casualness. "Life happens. We realized we weren't working out, and went our separate ways."

"You all right?"

"Yeah, I'm okay."

We sat quietly for a few moments.

"You doing anything for the talent show?"

She wrinkled her nose. "Probably a poetry reading or something like that, if anything. I'm not quite sure yet. Nat wanted to talk to me sometime today about it. And speaking of whom, here she comes." Nat saw us and waved as she walked over to our corner. "Hey, you two. Alex, mind if I borrow Cara for a minutes?" she asked as she bent down to kiss me on the cheek.

"No prob. See you later, Cara."

"Later."

I stayed and took a few minutes to finish my cappuchino in the relative quiet--for a library lobby, it certainly did get noisy form time to time. As I was about to get up, Nat reappeared sans Cara. "Wow, that was fast," I commented as we walked out of the library. "I was expecting the two of you to be closeted for at least half an hour."

"I just wanted to talk to her about the talent show. She said she'd think about it, and I didn't want to push."

"How many people have you recruited for your choral ensemble so far?"

"Six confirmed, five maybes. I'm almost thinking of drafting you."

"Um, considering the effect you're going for, wouldn't having me be rather, well, counterproductive?"

"You're just saying that because you don't want to sing," she said, mock pouting.

"I agreed to sing for the show, didn't I?"

"So why won't you tell me what songs you're doing?"

"Ah ha!"

"Ah ha what?"

"All of this is your roundabout way of trying to worm out of me what I'm doing for the talent show yet again. Admit it, not knowing is killing you."

"Is not!"

"Make you a deal." I tapped her gently on her shoulder. "Catch me, and I just might tell you," were my parting words as I took off.

"Why you..."

We must have been a sight, running around the campus like two crazy kids--oh wait, we are two crazy kids. How silly of me. <grin> Normally, I would have never tried something like this--she's faster than I am, and she knew it too. However, I have a bit more stamina than she did, which means that if she didn't catch me in the first minute or two... yep, there it is. She had stopped, huffing and puffing, by a bench. I circled back to her (more than a tad winded myself), being careful to stay out of arm's reach. "Walk around a little bit, so that your body slows down properly."