Chapter 16

Thursday

Kelly

What a morning! There were several sets of roaming hands before we got to music — most of them asked first, a few just sort of brushed me as I passed. Damn this was great! This was what it was all about. Evan stayed with me — I don't know if he thought he was making sure things didn't go too far or if he was just enjoying the view, but I needed the guidance, frankly.

By the time we actually got to music I was ticking over nicely, thank you very much.

Mrs Monroe almost started the lesson, but I cleared my throat audibly and she paused, then seemed to realise. "Miss Moore, would you like to take up the offer of relief?" You could hear the distaste in her voice, which made me feel a little bad — not bad enough to stop, mind you, but a little.

That's when it hit me properly — what if no-one came up? I had no idea who'd been out in the corridors; it could have been complete strangers. What if everyone here thought of me as a friend, like Evan had on Monday... but then, Evan had come round by break that day.

The bucket seat at the front of the class was cold — I left my towel on my seat — and I felt my nipples crinkle as the goose-bumps appeared. How attractive is that plucked chicken look?

"Would you like some help, Kelly, or would you rather do this by yourself?" Mrs Monroe asked, which caught me by surprise... I mean, people did themselves, obviously. I had... but not in front of anyone else. That seemed dirtier than having someone else do it...

"If... if there are any offers." The sound of clothing shifting carried surprisingly — reassuringly — well.

"Let's see, we have Evan, Carl, Alasdair and Mitchell." She explained. Evan would understand, I'm sure, he'd already had his shot, let's see if someone else could have a go.

I don't really know Carl or Mitchell that well — they're names and vague voices, I know Carl sings and Mitchell's a drummer in a band out of school, but beyond that... who knows. Alasdair, though, sings in the school music club with me, which is strange because he has a terrible stutter. I know — now — that he hangs around in Alban's little reject club at lunch-times, so... alright, it was sort of a pity choice, but it must have been my turn to make one by now rather than be the beneficiary of one.

"Al?" He was out of the chair faster than I expected, a long, cold hand on my shoulder.

"Th-th-th-thank you." He whispered, and then trailed his hand down my chest. Damn those fingers were cold, but they were long and nimble — he plays piano, I now recall — and... damn me if this was his first time I'm a fucking ninja. I was already well on the way, I know, but he didn't take long at all to take me the rest of the way over — and here was me thinking I was doing him a favour. He was... firmer than Connor, but not as strong as Evan was — not as good as Evan was, either — and a hell of a lot more gentle than Andrew McBride had been.

"Oh god, it's coming..." I hissed, feeling his questing fingers trailing about, both hands at work in short, firm, quick motions. Then his lips clamped about my nipple, and it just seemed to drag the fire up through my belly, and I gushed all over his hands...

"Oh... oh... ooooooh..." I settled in the seat, flushed and sweating — his hands didn't feel cold any more. "Thank you, Alasdair." I managed, and he just got up and walked away without saying anything else.

I made my way back to my chair, sitting at the second attempt, and Evan leant over to whisper to me.

"You should have seen the smile on his face as he went back to his seat — I hear Cheryl Turner broke up with him a few weeks ago and was decidedly uncomplimentary about his talents. I think you've just put that rumour to bed..." Cool... I did manage to do him a favour, then.

I have no idea what happened for the rest of music, I just kind of drifted through the lesson, picking up the bits that Evan and Kirsten poked me for — I know they were laughing to themselves, but I was still coming down off that high.

Then we had break, where it all started up again. It took me ten minutes to actually get to the canteen where everyone else was. I kept in the fringes of the conversation as an assortment of people took their opportunity to — what's that expression in the leaflet - examine the human form.

People were talking about my outburst that morning, and Alban and Marissa's continued absence — something about a road accident, but I didn't hear the details — but the bit that really caught me was Issy, Kirsten and Pete. Issy was practically crying about Connor and me, and how she'd let things slip.

When the bell went I was just about back in my own body, finally happy at the way the week was going, and I got up to head for English.

"You OK?" I asked, as Evan dropped me off at Issy's side.

"Yeah..." she managed, in a half-whisper. "Look, I'm... I'm sorry about Connor. I didn't think it'd work out like this."

"He freaked a bit, but... probably for the best."

"You don't like him?" she sounded surprised.

"He's a nice enough guy, yeah... better than most, this week, actually, but... he's a little boy inside, I think. He's still got some growing to do."

"He's not," she almost snapped that, which surprised me. "He's just... he's innocent. He's in the middle of all this, and there's not an ounce of deceit or malice in him. It's like he's just failed to notice that the rest of the world's a hate-filled cess-pool waiting to collapse in on us all."

"You're in a cheery mood..." She was... defensive. It was the strangest thing, nothing seems to get to Issy, usually, she just breezes through everything like she's one step ahead of everyone else. Kirsten's similar, but she's not as obviously happy as Issy is. I don't know what she was defensive about, but... there you go. Something to keep an eye out for.

"I'm sorry... it's been a strange day. First there was McBride and his lot, the..."

"What do you mean? What happened to McBride?"

"He, Mikey and Phil got called in to Dr Hibbard's office first thing, they've got late detention all this week for what they did to Marissa yesterday, didn't you hear?"

"No... I was... I missed the canteen this morning."

"Oh yeah, I heard about your little speech, too." She smiled at that, linking her arm into mine. "Nicely done, by the way. And then there was Marissa and Alban dashing off."

"So what was that about?"

"I'm not sure, actually. Something about the hospital, though... I hope it's not too serious." That was a worry — I don't pretend for a minute that Marissa's my best friend or anything, but she seems nice, I hoped nothing too bad had happened. Then we reached English, and I was so busy thinking about what had happened that morning that I almost missed Mr Pearson asking if I needed relief. I'd settled back down again, it was a completely different crowd... hell, why not!

"Right, you have a selection of..."

"Pick me!" Issy's voice snapped out across the room.

"Miss Connors, I'm not sure you understand wha..." Mr Pearson tried to tell her, but faltered to a standstill. I'm not sure what the look was that she gave him, but it obviously worked.

"Miss... Kelly... you have a choice of Mark Rustell, Paul Watkin or... Isobel." This had been in the back of my mind since... well, since Monday, I think. She'd mentioned it then, in passing, and it was obvious that she'd been serious... now that the time had come I was suddenly nervous.

I mean, I was nervous just being up in front of all those people — I couldn't see them, but they breathe, they shuffle in their seats as they try to get a view, they shift their chairs around... you can't escape the knowledge that they're there, watching. Watching whom, though...

I said to myself at the beginning of the week that I was in it to experience as much as I could, there was every chance that afterwards it would just go back to the way it was before. If I was going to get everything in, now was as good a time as any.

"Issy." It almost stuck in my throat, despite the resolve, and she must have seen it in my face as she came close.

"Are you sure about this?" she whispered in my ear, tracing her hands lightly down the outside of my arms.

"Just about..." I confirmed, a nervous giggle escaping.

"Hold on, then."

Her lips were unbelievably soft, just sort of squeezing my nipple as she knelt — or crouched, I'm not sure which — in front of me. She eased my knees apart, trailing her hand up the inside of my thigh and I was dripping already. She sighed, I don't know if anyone else heard it, and then her fingers were on me and I just lost any sense of anyone else being there.

You remember I said that you can't escape the knowledge that people are there? I lied. I escaped the knowledge of what planet I was on, right then. I'd always imagined that long nails would be a problem down there, I chew mine terribly, but they weren't. She was so careful, but so so good. Nothing obvious, nothing dramatic, she barely seemed to be touching me half the time, but I was squirming in the seat trying to push myself onto her hand, and she just seemed to know when to pull away, when to ease a little further in.

And then, suddenly, my nipple was cold in the air, and she went down. As good as her fingers were — and she'd been far, far better than any of the others — her mouth was even better. I'd been wet before she started, but I was quivering through my first as soon as I felt her move, it was just so... naughty, I suppose. I wasn't aware of the people watching, but I knew they were there, and it added something to know they were all waiting, all focussing on us.

On me!

That was all sort of background thought at the time, you understand. She started off long and slow, end to end, and all my squirming and shivering stopped; I just melted into the chair. She slowed, burrowing with her tongue and her fingers came back into play, just stroking up across my button gently as she worked further and further in. Then she switched, two fingers slipping up inside me and her tongue drawing up to work at my clit. I think I started squealing then, and when she sucked it up into her mouth and squeezed it with her tongue I went. It wasn't like they normally are; normally I get little rockets of sensation shooting up from belly through my chest, but this started everywhere and just burst, like a balloon. Even my toes were tingling when she sat back, and I couldn't breathe properly.

"Wow." I finally managed, and that seemed to break the spell; the class just applauded, and Issy leant in and kissed me gently. That's when Mr Pearson stepped in again.

"That's enough of that, I think." Oh, right, yeah, kissing's against the rules. The rest of it's fine though... it makes you laugh. Well, it would have done, if I'd had the energy.

"Thanks." I told her as she helped me to my feet. I don't think she quite knew what to say, and the applause still hadn't died down.

"If we could get on with the lesson now?" Mr Pearson cut across them, stopping the clapping as I slumped into my seat. I noticed, though, that he stayed behind his desk to teach the rest of the lesson. Can't imagine why that might be...

Connor

"You avoiding me?" I turned round, and there were Kelly and Issy, both staring at me intently. That's never a good sign. Eye contact is one of the strange things about human interaction. You don't know someone, you don't meet their eyes, because it's a challenge. You do know them, you make eye-contact because it forges a bond, it shows a connection, but then when you're really, really close you move back to not looking any more because you don't need to.

So, two of them staring either meant a challenge, or they were trying to make a link? I don't know either of them well enough to think it was the second.

"Yes." I admitted, trying to look away. I looked at my feet, I looked at the shelves on the other side of the library, I even tried focussing on the space between the two of them, but I kept getting drawn back. I know what they mean about deer and headlights, now.

"Why?" They stepped forward, penning me in against the table — I hadn't even been aware I was about to try and leave. I don't know how they knew to move together like that, either, but they did. "Why did you run away earlier?"

A week ago I would probably just have shrugged and waited for them to go away, but... what did I have left to hide any more?

Issy had told her, and they were both standing so close they could probably feel that I liked her.

"Because you'd probably freak. Because it's just not going to happen for me, and I didn't want to hear that from you. Because I'm..."

"You're what?" Issy cut in. I expected it to be Kelly. "You're a freak? You're the weird kid that no-one wants to know?" I just nodded, it's bad enough when I say it. Then she slapped me! Full bore, both barrels, winding up from the shoulder, the whole room turned at the noise. "You're a bloody idiot, is what you are!" she hissed, and stalked away.

And I still didn't know what for. Kelly, of all things smiled.

"Come on, walk with me." She reached out, grabbed my arm, and tugged me away from all the attention.

"Is that what you brought her for, so she could slap me?" I tugged the arm away, there are some times you just want to be on your own. Right now, I just wanted to talk to Alban, but he wasn't around.

"No, she did that all by herself." She told me, taking my arm again. "Please, talk to me... you'll have to talk to Issy about the slap later."

"Talk to you about what?"

"Why you ran away."

"I told you why, because you'd think I..."

"Because you were afraid I'd think that, you don't know what I'd think."

"Was I wrong?"

"I don't really know. I've known you all of four days, Connor. I admit, I've not really thought about you like that, you do seem like a little boy sometimes. Issy doesn't... oh my God!"

"What?" I turned round — my instant thought was that she'd seen something behind me. That obviously wasn't it.

"Never mind." That smile returned.

"What?"

"Doesn't matter... look... I don't know you, but I'd like to. Even if nothing else comes of it, you've been a good friend this week, and I could use them if I'm going to keep this up. Talk to me, let me get to know you. I'm not saying anything's going to come of it, but I'm not saying 'No', either, OK."

"You're not?" Wow! I mean, seriously... wow! That was just... wow!

Did I mention 'wow!'? I can't believe this, I really can't. You daydream about this sort of thing, you know, finding someone you like, them liking you back, all the rest of it. I didn't really think it would ever happen though. I mean, it was a possibility, but... not likely, and like I said to Kelly, I don't get my hopes up, it makes the disappointments easier to deal with.

"Of course, there'll be competition..."

"There's always going to be competition." I pointed out. "If it works, it works." She just laughed, one of those laughs where you just know they know something you don't.

"You're laughing at me."

"A little." She admitted, pulling my arm a little closer. I didn't really need that reminder of how warm she is, or how smooth the skin across her breasts is as it pressed against my arm. "Sorry... it's cute. You see yourself as sort of... well, weird, you said, right?"

"Yeah." At least now the other cheek was red, too.

"Well, Issy described it as 'innocent'." Was that good? I mean, there's all those little euphemisms that people use, I got an e-mail about them once: 'good personality' means 'looks like the back end of a rhino' and that sort of thing. It was a joke, I know, but there's more than an element of truth in it. What did 'innocent' mean? Evan says the worst thing you can be called is 'nice', which didn't sound so bad to me.

"I meant it, too." Issy was stood by the door, waiting for us. She seemed calm, but then she hadn't seemed like she was about to slap me, either.