WEDNESDAY
The next morning, I arrived at school as usual and went to class. By second period, I noticed something strange—a few pretty girls actually made eye contact with me in the hall, and a few even said, "Hey" at me and smiled as they walked by. Initially, I was surprised and didn't respond, but after a couple of times, I nodded, or said "hey" back.
When I was at my locker, before lunch, I waited, as I always did on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, for Dana to walk by. For most of senior year, seeing her walk by was one of the highlights of my week. Today, however, instead of just walking by me without a glance, she stopped and came over to me. She looked great, as usual.
She put her hand on my shoulder, leaned into me so that I got a strong whiff of her scent and whispered in my ear, "I hope you don't mind, but I mentioned some of your hidden talents to some of my friends. I think it might be a good thing for you and maybe it will make up for my bad behavior." She squeezed my shoulder and pulled away. "Tomorrow at 5, again," she said, maybe a bit louder than necessary.
"Yeah, see you then," I croaked, as she walked away.
I was still overcome by her presence as I watched her ass wiggle down the hall. I realized that everyone in the hall was watching me, so I tried to pull myself together and go to lunch.
I joined Fred and Gina at our table. Gina started in on me right away.
"What the fuck is with you? You're like some sort of man-slut," she hissed.
"What are you talking about?" I asked, feigning ignorance.
"Look, I know what happened with you and Dana."
I shot a look at Fred, who sputtered, "I didn't say anything."
Gina jumped in, "No, he didn't have to tell me, it is all over the school. I was in the girls' room, and everyone was talking about how you and Dana had done it, and that she said that you were quite the stud."
I had to smile. Dana really did control the social network here. She could have said that I had horns and a tail, and people would have believed it.
"Why is that any of your fucking business?" I asked Gina. "I know that this whole thing is out of the blue, but can you blame me? You don't get to tell me who I can date, or sleep with."
She stood up and said, "I just thought you were better than that, that you wouldn't just become whatever with Dana after the way she has treated us."
I responded, "Look, I have been basically a social outcast forever here, and now things are going my way, for whatever reasons. I plan on taking advantage and making up for lost time."
Gina turned and stormed out of the cafeteria.
I turned to Fred and asked, "What's her problem?"
He looked at me, as if
I
was the crazy one, shrugged and started to eat his sandwich. We ate together in silence, and I could sense the eyes of everyone in the cafeteria staring at me.
Before going home, I decided to stop at the coffee shop for a latte. I entered the shop, and savored the spicy coffee smell. I ordered my drink, and while it was being made, I noticed that it was pretty crowded, groups of high school kids drinking and goofing around, older people working on their laptops and one old guy, just sitting and drinking coffee. I saw this one cute redhead sitting alone, staring into an iPad, drinking coffee. She had a pile of textbooks on the table.
I realized that one thing that I hadn't had the nerve to do yet was to ask a strange girl out. Someone who wasn't already set up to sleep with me, for example. I remembered the advice I had gotten at the lake house, to be confident and not scared. So, I decided to challenge myself and to ask this redhead out for a date. If she said, no, at least I had tried, and I figured it would get easier each time. And if she said yes, then I would have a date with a cute girl.
I got my latte, screwed up my nerve, took a deep breath and went to her table.
"Excuse me," I asked, "can I sit here?"
She looked at me with surprise and swiveled her head around.
"Why?" she asked, "there are empty tables."
"Because I wanted to meet you," I said, with as much bravado as I could fake.
She blushed, and said, "O.K., I guess, have a seat."
"I'm Jack," I offered, sticking out my hand.
"Fiona," she said, shaking my hand.
I sat down and gave her a closer look. Red hair, shoulder length. Light brown eyes, fair skin, nice looking. Irish, probably. Nice tits, it appeared. She was watching me look at her.
"I go to North," I said—"you?"
"South," she said. "So, I guess we have to hate each other," she joked.
"Not necessarily," I said, trying to make conversation. "What year?" I asked.
"Senior," she responded.
"Me too."
We mentioned the names of people we knew at the other school, and realized that we had both been on our schools' math league team. It was clear to me that Fiona was about as socially inept as me, which, strangely, made me more comfortable. We chatted about school, and college (she was going to be going to a very good school on the West Coast), and before long, we were finished with our coffees. It was time for me to put up or shut up. I asked her to go to a movie with me that night. She seemed surprised, but agreed. We made arrangements for me to pick her up, exchanged cell numbers and went our separate ways.
I went home, and Sarah was sitting out at the pool with some big, muscled guy, who she introduced as Dave, one of her friends from college. Sarah's bikini left little to the imagination, and I briefly flashed on her naked before rushing that image out of my mind.
I asked her if they minded if I swam some laps, and they didn't, so I changed into my suit and started swimming laps, thinking about what had gone on at school. When I came out of the pool, Sarah and Dave were gone. When I went up to my room to change, I could hear them going at it in her bedroom. I was happy for her. I went upstairs, went on line for a while, then showered and changed for the date.
I picked up Fiona at her house on the other side of town. She looked very nice, conservatively dressed, but I could tell that she did have a pretty good body. We went to a restaurant for a quick bite before the movie, and we both labored to make conversation. We went over some of the same areas as earlier, and discussed our families, schools, and the like. At one point, our hands briefly touched, but she pulled back, as if shocked. Which was not a good sign. We then went to the movies and found seats about halfway back. Of course, we had to share an armrest, and we kind of jockeyed for position, finally ending up with my arm on the bottom and hers resting on top of mine. The movie was O.K., and after, I drove Fiona home. I tried to kiss her goodnight, and she turned her face, so I kissed her on the cheek. I drove home, a bit frustrated.
It was about 11 when I got home. Dad was talking to Sarah with the TV on.
