Which of the Two?

At St. Martin's high school, by the time April rolled around the school felt a lot emptier. Once students turned 18, they were able to sign themselves out of class, and as the school year wore on more and more students regularly took advantage of the policy. Billy Tomlinson sat down at his stool in Chemistry Lab and fished his phone out of his blazer.

<U comin to class?> He sent the message to his best friend Audrey. A minute later his phone buzzed.

<Sorry, meant to tell you. I have a 'doctor's appointment' today lolol>

<I shoulda known you'd abandon me once you turned 18...>

<I'm just taking a long lunch, I'll be back for Stat>

<Alright, enjoy your lunch. I'll just suffer here in silence...>

<Oh, you poor thing. Thoughts and prayers>

<Thoughts and prayers>

Billy put his phone away as Mr. Murphy entered the room in his white lab coat.

"Looks like we have a light group today," he muttered. "Divide into your pairs, if your lab partner isn't here just pair up with the nearest person."

With Audrey gone, Billy looked around for who he'd have to work with. He locked eyes with Molly Cleary, and she walked over to his table. Molly was the Serena van der Woodsen of St. Martin's: beautiful, popular, and more interested in attending parties than doing well in school. Well, at least, this is what Billy assumed. He wasn't much for parties, and despite being in school together since 6

th

grade, Molly and Billy hadn't ever really talked.

Mr. Murphy walked by their table and plopped a folder on the counter. Billy opened the folder and pulled out two sets of instructions. He passed one to Molly as he began to read. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed that Molly was playing on her phone instead of reading the instructions. Already he could feel himself growing irritated, he could see how this was going to play out: he'd spend the next three hours doing all the work while she goofed off.

"Molly?" he tried his best to sound diplomatic.

"Yeah," she responded absently.

"Um. Do you wanna get started on this?"

"One sec," she said in the same distracted tone. When she finished what she was doing, instead of picking up her instructions, she walked around the table and began to read off Billy's sheet. Billy felt himself tense up being this close to her. She was bent over the table, and her plaid skirt rode up along the back of her leg, exposing more of her thigh. Billy caught himself staring and returned to reading the instructions. Molly stood up and looked up at Billy, "You ready to get started?"

Billy couldn't help but notice just how dazzling Molly was up close. She had bright blue eyes, set between dark angular eyebrows and high cheekbones with a light dusting of freckles. She parted her straight, sandy blonde hair in the middle, so it fell and framed her face. "It seems pretty easy, not sure I'm wild about tasting diluted vinegar though!" She giggled and scrunched up her button nose. Billy smiled, nodded softly, and began to set up the materials.

The experiment was testing to see how sensitive they were to different tastes, they needed to make different dilutions of sugar, salt, and vinegar. Molly was right, it really wasn't that complicated.

"You know, I bet Murphy gave us this experiment cuz he thinks we're all checked out by now," said Billy.

"Yeah, maybe. Or maybe he just wants to hang out in his office and play solitaire or watch porn or something?"

Billy was taken aback. "Porn?" He tried not to say it too loudly.

"Oh yeah!" Molly adopted a hushed tone, "Murphy's really creepy. Look."

Billy and Molly looked to the head of the class where Mr. Murphy was sitting behind his desk. Billy followed his eyeline and noticed that Mr. Murphy was staring intently at one of his classmates' asses. He looked at Molly and she raised her eyebrows as if to say, "See?"

He snorted out a brief laugh and Molly giggled too. "I bet he's gonna go google 'naughty schoolgirl' or something like that. I bet he's gonna cover his boner as he goes into his office too."

Almost as if on cue, Mr. Murphy stood up and announced that he was going to do some grading in his office and if anyone needed him, they could just knock on the door. Billy couldn't help but notice that his clipboard was carefully covering his crotch. Billy and Molly couldn't help but begin laughing. Mr. Murphy looked back at them with a mixture of confusion and paranoia before disappearing into his office.

"Let's get started, if we finish quickly, I can probably get Murphy to let us leave early," said Molly, putting her hair up to work.

"Just not too quick," said Billy. "We wouldn't want to...interrupt anything."

Molly grimaced and laughed at that. They made their solutions and marked out their table to begin. Molly took a cotton swab and dipped it in one of the solutions. Billy was surprised when she told him to open wide, but he opened his mouth and stuck out his tongue. She lightly dabbed the swab on his tongue.

"Taste anything?"

"Nope."

"Oh, Billy, I'm sorry, but you're not a supertaster. But you're gonna have to lean down for the next one, you're too tall. Ok, do me!" She opened her mouth and stuck out her tongue. She wasn't wrong about their height difference; Molly was probably a foot shorter than Billy. That height difference, plus her extended tongue, was a very alluring image. He slowly extended his hand, equipped with a cotton swab, and pressed it against her tongue. He felt her tongue press back against the swab before withdrawing behind her pursed lips. She swallowed, darted her tongue quickly across her lips, and offered, "Vinegar?"

"Yes, that's a good tongue you've got there," said Billy. "Oh, sorry," he quickly offered, realizing how that sounded. She laughed and told him it was okay. They quickly conducted the rest of the experiment, concluding that Molly's tongue was indeed better than his.

They finished with plenty of time to spare and began to wash the glassware they used. "I appreciate you contributing to the experiment," she said.

"Of course."

"Well, it's nice for a change to not be the only one trying to get the work done. My friends are happy to let me do everything."

"Yeah, that's what I like about having Audrey in class. Even though the rest of our group are slouches, between the two of us we can get everything done."

"Yeah, where is she today?"

"It was her birthday yesterday, so she decided to do a little skipping today."

"Oooo, fun. Def a let down being the youngest in my little group."

"When's your birthday?"

"This Friday actually, don't expect to see me next week haha"

"No way."

"What?"

"I'm eighteen on Saturday."

"How did I not know that!?"

"Same way I didn't know your birthday was Friday, I guess."

Billy went back to cleaning and finished up. He felt Molly's hand on his arm, and she asked him if he wanted to leave. He liked the feel of her hand on his forearm.

"Grab your stuff and follow me." They walked over to Mr. Murphy's office door and knocked. There was some brief shuffling that caused Molly and Billy to give one another a significant look. Mr. Murphy opened the door.

"Hi, Mr. Murphy," Molly adopted an overly sweet tone and pulled a strand of hair with her fingers.

"Ms. Cleary, how can I help you?"

"Well, Billy and I are finished, and we were wondering if it would be okay if we could be released early to be outside."

"Ms. Cleary, you know that's not my policy."

She reached out and brushed Mr. Murhpy's arm playfully, "Oh, come on, Mr. Murphy, please? We've finished all our work, we're just gonna be sitting in here chatting anyway, we're gonna be distracting our classmates."

"Ever the altruist, aren't you?" he said dryly.

"Fine, it's a nice day out, and we just want to be in the courtyard. Please? At least we showed up today." Billy noticed that her hand was touching his arm again, but this time it stayed there. Billy felt a pang of jealousy.

"I expect you to stay on campus," Mr. Murphy said with emphasis, "and you're turning in your typed procedure next class. So, if you need to return to your table, now is your chance." His implication was clear.

Billy finally spoke up, "Mr. Murphy, we're done. Promise."

"Very well, enjoy the nice weather." Mr. Murphy stepped out of his office and notified the rest of the class that if they finished their experiments, they were free to leave for the remainder of the period. Molly and Billy scurried out of the room to the sound of their classmates cries of "we're done too, Mr. Murphy!"

St. Martin's courtyard overlooked the athletic grounds, which, in turn, butted up against Riverside Park. It was one of the few places in the city outside of Central Park where you might actually get a good look at the sky, at least from ground level.

Molly had pulled off her socks and shoes and was running her toes through the grass. She'd bent her knees, which pushed the edge of her skirt up towards her hips; there were a few times Billy thought he might have seen her underwear. Billy, for his part, had pulled off his blazer and undone the knot of his tie.

They chatted breezily, and Billy was struck at how wrong his impression of Molly had been. She was smart without being pretentious and confessed that she sometimes felt out of step with most of her friends who cared far less about academics than she did.

"Where are you headed after graduation?" asked Billy.

Molly scrunched up her face again and said, "Harvard," sheepishly.

"Why are you embarrassed by that?"

"Oh, I don't know. I mean for one, I think people hear that and then assume I'm some kind of, elitist, or something."

"Do you really care what other people think about you so much?"

He sensed a bit of a bristle when she replied, "I mean, I'm still going there. I'm not letting that stop me."

"Right."

"But, frankly, are they really that wrong? Like, there are plenty of really good schools that are like state schools, and I probably could go there. So maybe there is a kind of keeping up with the Joneses..."

"Sure, but Harvard has some cache, obviously. If you're not looking down on people, how much does it really matter if people are making that assumption? I think it says more about other's close-mindedness than it does about you."

"Well, I don't think it's quite that simple."

"Isn't it?" Billy could tell that things were getting a bit more serious, a bit more heated, but he was enjoying the exchange of ideas, even if it was a little acrimonious.

"No, there are systemic issues at play! I don't think it's as easy as you're making it seem, you know, reconciling that fact with my own participation in it."

"Well, you're going to Harvard, right? Kinda seems like you made up your mind. It seems reconciled."

Molly was quiet for a moment before she turned to Billy with a forced smile, "Can we talk about something else? I was having a good time working with you in lab, and I'd just much rather go back to that than continue this conversation."

Billy immediately felt like he'd fucked up, "Uh, yeah, of course."

"Cool, thank you." Molly didn't say anything more.

"I was having a good time too--Sorry, I enjoy debating ideas with people, I really wasn't trying to make you feel bad, or anything like that. I, um, I really admire that you're going to Harvard..." it felt pathetic and counterproductive, but he couldn't think of anything else to say.

"Billy, it's fine, let's just talk about something else." She put her hand on his briefly as she said it. "What do you do for fun?"

"Well, um, I code. I rock climb. I race bikes. Um, what else do you wanna know?"

"Where can you rock climb around here?"

"You'd be surprised, actually, there are quite a few indoor rock walls in the city, so I go to one of those a few times a week."

"How'd you get into it?"

"Well..."

"What?"

"It's just, it brings the conversation back to college."

"Oh, come on, it's fine. It's fine."

"I knew I needed some extracurriculars, and I just felt like something other than lacrosse might look more interesting to schools. But I do actually like it! It's actually how Audrey and I got to know one another, we climb at the same gym."

"What do you like about it?"

"It's both very physical and very logical. Um, so, gyms will make what we call 'problems' and it's like a tricky route that you're trying to figure out. So sometimes you fail at a problem because you're not strong enough, but you can also fail cuz you're not thinking about it in the right way? It can be very analytical. Sorry, that was really nerdy." Billy laughed at himself.

"Yeah, and here I was thinking you weren't a nerd at all, Billy," she said teasingly.

Billy's phone buzzed.

<I got nervous and I'm back a school lol. What should I do until Stat?> It was a text from Audrey.

<come to the courtyard, Murphy let me and Molly leave early>

<Molly?>

<Cleary?!>

<just come to the courtyard>

"Audrey's gonna join us."

A few minutes later, Audrey showed up.

"Do you know each other?" asked Billy.

"I'm Audrey."

"Molly. We're in ballet together, right?"

"Oh, yeah, we are."

Billy could sense there was tension between the two of them, but he couldn't figure out why. They chatted for a little bit longer before Molly stood up.

"I've got to print out an essay before English, so I'm gonna head to the library."

Billy stood up with her.

"But it was super good working with you today. I, uh, I'm having a party this weekend, for my birthday, and you should definitely come. You too, Audrey."

"Yeah, I think we're free, right?" Billy looked over at Audrey.

"Yep," she said, not that pleasantly.

"Great. Where's your phone?" Billy handed Molly his phone and she put her number in. "I'll text you the info. See you later." She gave Billy a hug, which surprised him, and a sweet smile.

Billy sat down as he watched Molly walk away.

"We're not really gonna go to that, are we?" asked Audrey.

"Sure, why not?"

"Since when do you go to parties?"

"Since when do I not?"

"Billy."

"Audrey."

"I can't believe you're all goo-goo eyed over Molly Cleary."

"What're you talking about?" Billy knew she was right, though.

"She flirts with everyone, you know."

"Cool." Billy drew his lips into a tight line.

"Well," Audrey adopted a fake low voice with a Southern accent, "I think it's time then that you and I have the talk, son. You see, there are some women who'll try and ensnare ya. They'll cloud your mind with their feminine wiles, and then, when you're not looking, they'll poke holes in your condom." Audrey scooched over to Billy and wrapped her arms around him. "They'll use pregnancy to bind you, like the anaconda." She squeezed him tight.

"Oh, are you tryna wrassle?" Billy adopted a country voice of his own. "You tryna wrassle?!" Billy broke free of Audrey's grip and then grabbed her and pulled the both of them to the ground. He was bigger than Audrey, but she was stronger than she looked. He did manage to get a hold of both her wrists and pin her to the ground, before he climbed on top of her. They both giggled as she struggled.

"Alright, alright, get off of me," she said with a laugh.

"You're all talk, Audrey, you're all talk."

"Hey, what are you two doing?!" a voice called out from across the courtyard. It was one of the teachers. Billy quickly scrambled off of Audrey and stood up. They ran off into the school as the teacher tried to cross the distance.

Friday finally rolled around. He'd texted with Molly a little bit over the past couple days, and he had begun to fantasize about what might happen between the two of them.

The truth was that Billy was the definition of inexperienced. Outside of Audrey, who he thought of as a sister, Billy didn't do much socializing, and that included dating. At 17 years and 364 days old, Billy still hadn't been kissed, let alone lost his virginity. But Molly seemed like someone it could happen with; they both had seemed desperate for a new kind of connection with someone else.

<I'm gonna hop in an Uber, should be over in like 15 minutes> texted Audrey.

It had taken some corralling, but Billy had convinced her to join him as an insurance policy, though he didn't tell her that. He figured that if nothing happened at least he and Audrey could bail and do something else.

He was struck by what she was wearing. The school's uniforms were not flattering, and when they climbed Audrey tended to favor loose, stretchy garments. Tonight, though, she wasn't hiding her body. She wore a form fitting crop top, her flat stomach visible to the world. The top was jewel red, and one half wrapped over the other and was tied together. The result of the wrapping was a plunging neckline that drew attention to Audrey's shapely C-cups. She wore a pair of baggy jeans that had carefully placed rips, one of them left the bottom of one of her ass cheeks visible.

She helped Billy pick out what to wear, a forest green sweater and a pair of dark jeans that helped him show off his trim figure. Audrey had also snuck a flask out of the house, and the two of them nursed on it as they waited to leave, both of them intent to be fashionably late for their first party.

"We should take some pics before we head out," said Audrey. Her speech was a little slurred.

"What kind of pics?"

"Come here, sit next to me."

He joined her on his bed, and she pressed her face against his as she snapped pictures with her phone. She jokingly kissed his cheek, and then stuck her tongue out and pressed it against his neck.

"Audrey, what are you doing?"

"Chill out, I'm just goofing off." Audrey flopped back on the bed as Billy stood. She arched her back, and then exhaled, each motion calling attention to her flat stomach, and the diagonal lines of her ribs. Billy could tell that as she exhaled there was a gap between her waist and her jeans that was wide enough for someone to slide their hand into. He shook his head, surprised at how he was seeing Audrey.

"Hey, we should leave in a few minutes, the party started 30 minutes ago. I don't want to be too late," said Billy.

"Why not? Worried someone might become

occupied

if we don't get there early enough?"

"Do you have a plan for if you need to head home by yourself?"

"I think you're getting ahead of yourself, Bill."

"I'm just making sure."

"And I can read you like a book. It's a little off-putting just how transparent it is."

"Dude, what is your problem?"

"Ugh, don't call me dude."

"I'd just as soon go by myself if you're going to be like this."

"Lighten up." She sat up and grabbed her flask again.

"You've gotta slow down, we're not even at the party, and I might not be able to look after you." He climbed onto the bed and snatched the flask out of her hand. The lid was still on, so he tossed it across the room onto some clothes piled onto a chair. The result was that he was kneeling on his mattress and Audrey's head was inches away from his crotch. He could look down and tell that Audrey wasn't wearing a bra.

"Man, alcohol really fucks with your head," he thought.

Audrey leaned forward and rested her head against his abdomen. "Maybe I shouldn't go."

"You can stay here if you want, my parents won't mind."

"But you really wanted to me to go to the party with you."

"Yeah, but you clearly don't want to go. So don't, it's all good. You can just stay here, watch a movie or something, and I'll be back later."

Billy stood up and took Audrey's hands to help her stand. She clumsily kicked off her shoes.

"I'll turn around so you can get comfortable."

"Billy, I don't care if you look." Audrey undid her belt and unbuttoned her jeans, letting them slide down her slim muscular legs, revealing a thong that matched the color of her top. She turned around exposing her ass to him, threw back the covers, and crawled into his bed. For a moment he thought, "I could just crawl into bed with her." Instead, Billy ran into his bathroom and filled a cup with water for her. Once she was settled into his bed, Billy left.