+++Good sex at the end, but not a "quick wank"+++
Simon's life was anything but simple. He was like any other kid in high school, in love with the handful of beautiful, popular girls—girls that frankly had better options. He had buddies he hung with, but most of them wound up hanging out with the other guys on Saturday night. He remembered seeing the scene in "Say Anything" when the local losers sat in front of the Gas-and-Sip and gave bad relationship advice to Lloyd. He didn't see himself as the romantic lead in the scene. He saw himself as the guy claiming they didn't have girlfriends "by conscious choice."
Walking home alone that night, he came to a genuine conscious choice. In a week he was going to graduate from high school. It was time, by the gods, to stop playing high school games. No more longing in vain for prom queens and cheerleaders, no more wondering what his buddies would think if he went after a girl with less obvious physical allure. He wasn't lowering his standards. He was going to find a girl that made him laugh, that made him think, that made him feel something more than physical lust and a vague hope of an improved social status. It was going to be simple.
About a week after graduation, he started a summer job at a kiddie amusement park: the kind with low-flying rides that entertained three-year-olds but left anyone over the age of seven less than impressed. It was work, and he liked being outside a lot better than he had liked working in the kitchen at a restaurant. The park was staffed by a mix of high school and college kids. His status as a recent graduate, eighteen wonderful years old, provided him a chance to slide in with the older kids at the lunch table. And the joy of that was that these kids partied pretty hard and pretty often. He found himself allowed to tag along with a new crowd.
The first Saturday night found him at a house party packed with college kids on summer break. A month ago he would have found himself trying to make time with, and consequently being rejected by, slightly older versions of the girls that had rebuffed him in high school. But this was not the case anymore. Simon scanned the room for girls not standing in the big circle around the cluster of well-muscled jocks hammering back beer-bongs. He found a trio of girls sitting in a corner, drinking slowly and talking amongst themselves. He recognized one of them as Cassandra, the busty but chubby redhead who had trained him on his first two days of work. He had an "in." He moseyed on over.
"Cassandra, hi! I just wanted to thank you for being patient with me the first couple days of work. You were really cool."
"Sure, Simon. Not a problem."
"Well, I'll let you get back to your friends. Looks like you were having a good time."
"Cass, who's your friend?" a short girl with glasses asked.
"Becca, this is Simon—um it starts with a W..."
"Waters."
"Well, Simon Waters, have a seat," Glasses ordered, making one the third girl, one with several facial piercings, slide over.
"Look out, Simon," Cassandra whispered as he shrugged and moved to sit down.
"Did she tell you to be careful?" Glasses said as he plopped down beside her. He didn't want to give Cassandra up, so he looked as if he had no idea what she was talking about. "I know she did. She tells me I'm a ballbuster."
"Really?" he said, mockingly covering his groin with his beer.
"So, Simple Simon, you're a typical young man, why you over here by us instead of by that gaggle of peroxides over there?" She slid her glasses down her nose and looked over the top of them at the beer-bong crowd.
"I came to say thank you to Cassandra."
"Could have done that at work."
"Becca, the kid was just being nice," the girl with nose, ear and brow piercings added, seemingly bored with the proceedings. "I'm sure he has other places he'd rather be. Let him go about his business."
"Is that what you want, Simple Simon? To leave us and go about your business? Or are you checking us out?"
"Wow, Cassandra!" he said. "I've met two of your friends, and I like one less than half of them. Sorry to have interrupted." He got up to go.
"Hey, come back when you can stay longer," Glasses called out as he began to walk away. So much for the simple life and meeting a different group of girls.
He ran into Tony, one of the friendlier guys from work. He talked to him for all of about thirty seconds before Tony's girlfriend grabbed him by the hand and led him off. Simon turned to look around the room and found himself face to face with Cassandra.
"Sorry about Becca and Carmen. They are kind of snots to younger guys."
"Hey, I'm not upset with you, Cassandra. You've been nothing but wonderful to me. I hope I didn't get you into hot water with your friends."
"Fuck them. I don't base who my new friends are on whether or not my old friends like them. I decided that a couple years ago."
"H-mmm," he grunted, half-smiling. Cassandra looked at him questioningly. "I just decided that a couple weeks ago."
"And that's why you chatted us up instead of the peroxides?"
"Would you be grievously offended if I said yes?"
"Considering I just said pretty much the same thing to you...I think that would be a little unfair. Well, just remember that my friends have been around the block a few more times than you, and they saw right through that. They get pretty jaded. Some guys at school act like we should be grateful just that they are talking to us instead of the party girls."
"Well, I'm not trying to be condescending or anything. Let me be straightforward. Cassandra, I am hereby openly declaring that I find you interesting as a person and it would be pleasing to me if we had normal social interaction."
"I also find that acceptable."
