Mutual Benefits

"So, first of all, I'm sorry," Lexi began as we found our table.

"Ah, so Morgan's talked to you already," I replied with humor, sitting down.

I put the straw in my drink as Lexi pouted at me. "I'm allowed to feel sorry without Morgan telling me anything!" she defended herself.

I put on a faux blank expression. "Oh, so she didn't talk to you?"

She blushed. "Look... I..."

I chuckled. "Apology accepted."

"No, you haven't even heard it yet. That's not fair." She wasn't turning any less pink. "I just thought we had... something happening and I... just wanted to ask if Morgan was..."

"You never thought to ask me?" I asked, my tone not accusatory.

She looked at me with urgency. "I thought we already said everything in the, uh, in the clothes store that one time," she replied earnestly. "You said, 'who knows?' I remember that word for word. 'Who knows.'"

"Yeah, word for word. All two words," I dryly replied. Lexi didn't say anything, mostly because her mouth was full of bubble tea, so I continued. "But that was a hypothetical if I wasn't dating Morgan. And, uh, maybe you've noticed, but I'm still dating her."

Lexi gave me a weird look. "But... she said it was cool. So why...?"

"Lexi, what if I want to be monogamous while I'm dating Morgan? What if I-" I stopped myself.

She caught on anyway. "...You were going to say something about how Taylor nearly screwed things up or something?" she inferred.

"I meant to ask you, how the fuck did you find out about that?"

Lexi laughed nervously. "Yeah, no," she immediately rebutted.

"No, really, I need to know."

"And no really, I can't tell," she responded emphatically. "Just... who gives a shit, you know? Why can't we just go with the flow? No one's angry at each other, no one's-"

"Taylor refuses to hang out with the group if I'm there and Milo and I are still awkward," I contested.

"Whatever. Fuck that. Do you want me or not? Because you're giving me some fucking mixed signals," she barked.

"Calm down," I defensively replied.

"I just don't like how you always have to be right about stuff. Like, isn't what you have nice?"

"It makes me nervous when I don't know why, or if people are hiding stuff from me. Tay- well I guess you know now, but Taylor was the fucking queen of hiding stuff from me. I'm not trying to be right, I'm showing you what happened and how it affected the group when the fallout from that stuff happened. I'm allowed to be nervous if you know but only laugh when I ask how you know."

"I didn't laugh!" she protested.

"Well, I mean, it was like a nervous laugh, but it was a laugh."

"Quinn, I'm not telling you because I know it'll be a shitshow if I tell you and you track down everybody involved. You're kind of a drama magnet, dude."

"I-!" I breathed in and out a few times, and ran my tongue over my teeth. "Okay, whatever," I conceded. "Who cares."

"Right?" she agreed. "Who cares? So can we get back to the, um... y'know... the 'me' thing."

I smirked. Classic Lexi. "So-"

"And, like, again, I'm sorry if I made you feel like a sex toy or something. Like, we don't have to do anything if you don't want it," she quickly added. "But like, you did say you wanted it, and if you didn't, it sounded a lot like you did."

I paused for a bit. "...So, I...." I looked at the ceiling for a bit and moved my mouth around in thought. "I know that... I find you physically attractive. But, I know a big part of me wants Morgan and only Morgan. I just don't know if that's all of me."

"Wow, Quinn, that's deep," Lexi said with big eyes, clearly meaning it.

"I know you have... needs... and that you're kind of jealous you don't have what your friends have. Is that fair to say?"

Lexi immediately opened her mouth like she was going to protest, but just ended up sitting back in her chair. "Yeah," she huffed. "It's fair." She pushed for a bit. "It's just so unfair! Morgan got to have you by going into a GameStop and acting dumb. Taylor got to fuck you with this cute tutor thing! Me, I'm like, a hundred percent honest, and I get this 'oh I dunno' crap."

In classic Lexi style, she practically shouted the part about Taylor fucking me with no regard for who was around. Nervously looking around me, I replied, "Lexi, I do feel for you, but by the time I even could feel you were attractive, I was already with Morgan, and already experiencing headaches from my infidelity."

"You were a Muslim? What?" Lexi asked with confusion.

"Lexi, Jesus Christ!" I nearly shouted in disappointment. "That's really racist! No, 'infidelity' means, like, cheating." Catching her look of confusion, I sighed and kept talking. "You're thinking of an 'infidel,' which is someone who doesn't believe in your religion. So if you heard Muslims, or, y'know, Christains or any other religion, saying 'infidel,' it just means 'you're not like me.'"

"What was the point again?" Lexi asked, possibly not even listening to my response to her choice of words.

"By the time I found you attractive, I was already with Morgan, and thanks somewhat to Taylor, I didn't like fooling around with others. But also, I just... like being just with Morgan. It feels nice for it to just be one person."

She chewed on her straw. "Doesn't seem fair," she finally managed.

"I won't even disagree with you. It probably isn't," I replied evenly. "But you're not the only person involved in this."

"Yeah, yeah," she said bitterly.

"And I'm not the only guy for you," I reasoned further.

"Yeah, but don't you like me?"

"Lexi, of course I like you, the whole group likes you."

She gave me a look like I was stupid. "Okay, let me say it in your disconnected nerd way. Don't you feel a seckshuwal ae-ttraction to-wards me?"

"I don't talk like that," I said half-defensively and half-laughing. "And yes, obviously I do or else this conversation would have been really quick. But I only started feeling that connection once I was with Morgan. It took time to get to know you, you know, like humans do."

"Quinn, that's not how any of this works at all," Lexi replied. "Guys never see it like that. All guys have their own, like, hotness meter, where girls are on this one-to-ten thing of like... 'yeah, I'd bone them.' And it doesn't matter what situation the guy is in, that girl is always a seven or like a ten or something."

"...Lexi, what the fuck are you talking about?" I asked, trying to understand her but completely failing.

"You're an alien, Quinn! You're a fuckin' alien man. Any guy in Hazelwood would fuckin kill for what you had and, like, what you're getting. And you're sitting here all, 'Hmm, I don't want that.'" Her imitation of me came with this pretentious British accent.

"So just because other guys would want it, I have to magically change myself to want something I don't want?" I countered.

"So you don't want me, so just say that. I can take it!" she replied right back.

"First of all, I never said that. I clearly do want you," I countered again.

"And yet you're making it all complicated. Drama magnet," Lexi replied, calm as the ocean.

I sputtered, but no words came out. She gave me this knowing smirk, playing with the straw with her tongue. I watched her and found myself giving this low chuckle. "Fuck you," I finally said.

"When and where?" she playfully responded, before resuming what she was doing with her tongue, not even bothering to sip her drink anymore.

I stared at her a little longer, then felt the adrenaline flow through me. I stood up and changed my seat to the one next to her, barely breathing correctly. I couldn't remember the last time I was this nervous. She stopped playing with her straw and just looked at me with the most blank unassuming expression I'd ever seen from her, and watched as I slowly lowered my face to hers. Unable to stop her smile, she closed the rest of the gap and we shared our first kiss.

Lexi was, as expected, enthusiastic. Nearly from the second our lips touched, she moaned into the kiss, which remained closed-mouth but lasted for a surprising amount of time. I'm sure if Lexi had her way it would have been open-mouth but we were still in a public place. As soon as we pulled away I looked around nervously to find, to my relief, that barely anyone was there and the few people that were here were clearly looking away from us.

"You're supposed to look me in the eyes after we kiss, dummy," Lexi complained from behind me.

"I'm an alien man. Give me time," I joked back.

"But I don't even know if you want... or like, liked it," she continued.

I looked back at her, looking into her eyes to find insecurity. And... care, in a weird way. I smiled. "I'm unsure of a lot of my feelings, but I liked it, Lexi. And I like you. Okay?"

"Okay," she replied with a smile of her own. "But also, like... I'm not trying to, like, replace Morgan."

My smile didn't wane. "Good, because no one will."

She rolled her eyes. "Sap. Yeah, I just want, like, you know."

"To feel wanted," I finished her sentence.

To my surprise, sadness flecked across her eyes. "Um, no, I was going to say sex... is, like, that how you see me?"

Part of me felt bad for assuming incorrectly, but I didn't want to change course. "Am I wrong?"

"Um... I..."

"It's not a bad thing to feel wanted, Lexi. I want to help you but I have to know what you're feeling."

"Okay, yeah. I want to feel wanted," she replied with more sadness than I'd heard in Lexi's voice before.

I smiled again and put my arm around her. "Then I think that this can work. Would you like me to come by your place before I go home?"

She broke into a smile right back. "Um, yeah. I would like that a lot."

***

"...Plus, Taylor never really treated me like a friend until she wanted sex from me, even if I did start it," I finished my thought as we walked. "And that's true with you too. You didn't get close to me until you learned about my sexual escapades."

"Yeah, I totally should have bonded with you over the video games I never play and the gifted program I was never in instead," Lexi replied, voice dripping with sarcasm. "And just say 'sex' like a normal person."

I smiled at her, and after a hearty glare, she smiled back. Nevertheless, she continued. "I just don't get why you care so much."

"Isn't it a good thing to care?" I asked her.

She shrugged, then gestured to a house. "We're here, by the way."

Much like Taylor and Morgan, Lexi lived in a particularly upper-middle-class home. I whistled. "Nice."

She gave me a weird look. "Nice? How? This is, like, average at best."

I folded my arms and smirked at her. "I live in an apartment. How does that fit in if this place is average?"

Embarrassed, Lexi mumbled something under her breath face flushed. "Well, uh, wanna come in?" she added.

I followed her into a modern looking foyer. The whole house smelled like some kind of expensive scented candle. "Should I say hi to your parents?" I asked.

"Mom's working and uh, no dad," she replied flatly.

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"Don't be, he died when I was, like, five. Mom keeps going on and on about him and, to be honest, I kinda wish she'd just move on and start dating again."

"Seems like an odd thing to want your mom to do..." I replied slowly, following her up the stairs.

"You probably want me to find a guy and be happy with him too," she replied, teasingly mimicking the way I said 'want.' "It's, like, the same thing."

I grinned, watching her sit down on her bed. "But then we wouldn't get to do... whatever we're about to do."

"I bet that's your loss more than mine," she said with a wink.

"Bold," I teased.

"I'm just starting," she teased back.

I didn't reply, and instead lunged at her, moving with her as the both of us moved backwards onto the bed, open-mouth kissing for the first time. I had to admit, Lexi was a surprisingly good kisser. Looking back, I couldn't even remember if Taylor and I kissed -- I think we didn't -- and of course kissing Morgan was a whole other feeling, but Lexi's kisses just... felt fun. In a way I never knew they could. Kissing her gave me this kind of rush.

Before our tongues could even get involved, Lexi unexpectedly pulled away, fluttering her eyes open and staring at me dreamily before nervously laughing and looking away. "Feels okay?" she asked.

"It means a lot that you asked," I replied. "Yeah. I think it feels good."

Without another word, we resumed what we were getting up to, getting a little hands-y with each other. Lexi's body may have been small, but she was also surprisingly fit, especially since she clearly was against getting involved in sports. She moaned when I first dared to slide my hand down to her butt and squeeze, and rewarded me by kissing me harder, more passionately. Over time, we figured out that we both liked it when I was feeling up her butt, and so I ended up on my back, with Lexi on top of me, both hands full of her butt cheeks.

Lexi's body was shuddering with passion, and whenever she broke off the kiss to breathe, I would be relentless. I would kiss her neck and enjoy the little purrs and moans she gave, feeling her grind needily against me. Eventually she would get too desperate to do something and latch her mouth back onto mine, and battle my tongue with her own.

I don't know how long we kissed for, but the sun was definitely in a different place in the sky by the time she got up off of me and breathlessly asked if I could eat her out. Since first kissing her, it was the only time I really hesitated, and thought of Morgan.

"It's a little fast..." I managed.

"If you don't want to, I won't make you, but... please?" Lexi asked, biting her bottom lip. "I haven't gotten it in forever -- forever, Quinn. I really need your help. Please, just... please eat me."

I smiled at her. I wasn't a hundred percent sure if I even wanted it, but... Lexi was cute. It was hard to say no to her. "Alright," I softly conceded.

She got up and we both moved kind of slowly, almost nervous for what we were about to do. I gently grabbed her by the waist and trailed my hands downwards, asking her with my eyes if she wanted me to take off her shirt. She politely declined, and undid her pants, electing to leave her shirt on.

She hesitated, seeing me stare, and blushed. "So, uh, it's silly, but... could you look away for a sec please?" she asked.

"Uh, yeah, of course," I replied instantly, not getting why but understanding I didn't need to. I turned around to see a full-body mirror, and turned again to make sure there was no way I could see Lexi. I could still see her out of the corner of my eye thanks to the mirror, so I looked down at the floor and shut my eyes.

After a bit, I heard, "Okay, you're good," and lifted my head, opening my eyes. Lexi was back on the bed, bottomless but keeping her legs firmly together.

"Mind if I keep my clothes on?" I asked as a joke.

"Yeah, that's fine," she timidly replied.

"Are you okay?" I asked, noting the tension.

She nodded quickly. "Y'know," she said with a nervous humor to her voice.

"Well, if I can..." I trailed off, putting both hands on her knees. With gentle force, I pried open her legs, and Lexi quickly turned pink and looked away.

Lexi's cute petit little pussy looked up at me. She'd clearly shaved recently, evident both by the lack of hair and some little red pumps in the area above her labia. Was that what she was embarrassed about...? I decided not to ask, since presuming wrongly would have really made me look like a jerk.

Deciding that no more words were needed, I lowered my head down between her legs and found a comfy place, beginning by kissing around her engorged labia.

"Don't tease, don't tease," Lexi nearly begged. "Just do it, fucking please."

Unable to contain my glee, I completely ignored her, kissing and licking, if anything, farther around her labia. Lexi whimpered and pouted and looked down at me in desperation, before immediately blushing and looking away, though she clearly did not want to endure this much longer and used her hand to force my head down.

Enjoying our dynamic, I let it happen, and kissed her outer folds for the first time. Hoping my limited training was enough, I got to work, kissing and licking at Lexi's folds while occasionally traveling upwards and trying to give her clit some attention. Her little clit was more securely tucked away than Morgan's or Taylor's, and truth be told, I wasn't even sure if I had truly found it. It was interesting -- I felt like I was 'good' at sex after enough times with Morgan and Taylor, but eating Lexi out made me almost feel like a novice again. Something about that really excited me.

Her whole body shuddered with my actions. It actually became really tempting to make my tongue move a certain way and watch her body move in kind of the same way, but something inside me told me to focus on her. It felt... good to pleasure her. It didn't feel like wish fulfillment like with Taylor, and it didn't feel like the 'girl next door' I was dating like with Morgan. It felt like two friends, hanging out, enjoying each other's bodies, getting horny to one another.

And I was feeling it. My cock pulsed and bulged against the front of my jeans, aching for release. As I made Lexi moan and whimper, I realized maybe for the first time that we were probably going to have sex. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, we were going to have sex.

I thought I was going to be repulsed or even weirded out by that fact, and yet, something about that thought really excited me. Maybe this was why everyone ever was expecting me to be a guy about this whole 'harem' thing and enjoy it. Because now, thinking of me having fun with Lexi with my girlfriend's approval, I was grabbing Lexi's ass and holding her closer to me as I dove my tongue in and out of her, dancing on her most sensitive spots, coaxing her to orgasm for me.

Lexi wasn't exactly quiet about it. It was clear the moment her apex was building within her, with the signals ranging from her higher and higher-pitched 'oh's to the frantic way she grabbed my hair and forced my head down. It was so cute, so precious, so very Lexi. Her moans got desperate and whiny, her hips grinding her labia against my mouth, her entire body shivering, until in one moment, she froze, barely moving apart from some spare shivering. Then, at once, she relaxed, a satisfied groan leaving her lips.

Her body gracefully deflated and sank down into the bed, wordlessly telling me how badly she needed this release. If I didn't know any better, I would have said this was the first time all year she actually experienced an orgasm. I let her sit for a few moments, idly stroking her vulva and watching for the moment she opened her eyes. Like with the kiss, they fluttered open dreamily and she smiled almost drunkenly at me.

"Wasn't that fun?" she croaked, then the two of us shared a laugh. I got up and joined her on the bed, though as soon as she could move, she quickly found her panties and pants, and put them back on.

She didn't say much after that, so I thought to just be there for her, though my concentration was mostly on my phone. Quickly pulling up my texting app, I messaged Morgan, explaining what had happened and the extent to which I had gone with Lexi. I wasn't sure, but my gut told me that she and I weren't going to do anything else that day. Morgan responded immediately with a simple message.

okay <3

Ugh, texts were so damn hard to read. Part of me wished I waited until I could tell her in person, then see firsthand how she reacted.

Meanwhile, Lexi had by now fully recovered, and was cuddling up against me, smiling like the cat that ate the canary.

"That was so great," she told me. "I definitely needed that, and you were actually kinda good at it. Like, most guys do not know what they're doing, or even, like, care about what they're doing. Do you mind if we don't do anything else? Like, I dunno if you have, like, blue balls or anything right now, I'm just, like, thinking about what you said about maybe taking things a lil' slow..."