Change

The journey to becoming Emma’s boyfriend was a long series of baby steps. Being Emma’s boyfriend was a god damn sprint. All the months of change that had occurred after meeting her had nothing on the whirlwind that took place in the weeks that followed.

First big event; telling Mom and Dad the news. I think Mom sobbed for a good twenty minutes. That actually kinda hurt. I knew I wasn’t that popular in the girl department, but from the way my mom carried on, she had expected me to die a hermit. Dad just accepted it with his usual skepticism. I think the months of her coming over for Dungeons and Dragons helped. At least he wasn’t immediately stamping her as a gold digger and demanding a full investigation of her motivations.

Second event was the first Friday get-together as an ‘official’ member of the group. When we went to an arcade, I legitimately thought I had a chance. It was a blast going around playing all the games. Emma and I raced some go-karts and played a few games of laser tag with the group. I actually didn’t know what would happen when I ‘won’ Emma. Seeing as we had only been dating a week, sex was off the table. Or was it? That made me antsy. Ryan mentioning roleplay of a master/servant situation interested me. It might be fun to flip our usual script and try something new.

So I went into our first Friday pumped and ready to go kick some noob ass. The game?

Skee ball.

Fucking. Skee ball.

Who the fuck plays skee ball?

Apparently Cameron and Justin. Justin came out on top, beating Cameron with a lucky corner hundred roll. I got last. It was bullshit. If only people had told me it was going to be skee ball, I could have done a few rounds to warm up. Once I got the hang of it, I was doing pretty good. The problem was that by the time I got the hang of it, I ran out of balls.

Emma ate up every second of my last place ranking. She didn’t say anything, but I could see it in her eyes. The excitement that I didn’t win. That some guy other than me was going to pick her, take her home, and—

Colin. Colin was the one who picked her this week. The group spent twenty or so minutes talking and winding down from the excitement the competition caused. By then, I could tell the mood had shifted. The friendly banter was more flirtatious as guys wrapped their arms around their ‘prizes’ and held them close. Grant and Ryan had two, one on each arm, both looking perfectly fine coming in last. Well, last above me.

Then people started to disperse. Emma brought Colin over after having spent the past twenty minutes openly flirting with him…

She grabbed my hands, holding them as she looked up at me. “Colin is going to give me a ride tonight.”

We both knew that wasn’t the only thing he was going to be doing, and the innuendo there was fairly obvious.

“O-okay.”

She didn’t tease me like I thought she would. With a smile, she stood on her toes to give me a quick peck on the lips. Nothing major, but it was there. I thought she would walk away, but she remained in front of me, still holding my hands.

“Isaac.” Her voice was low so that only I could hear. My heart raced. Maybe the demon inside her wouldn’t be quiet tonight after all. “This is different.” Her hands squeezed mine. “I’m not going to fuck him because I want to. I’m going to do it because you want me to.”

Blinking, I stared at her with my mouth slightly open.

“Do you understand?” she asked.

I felt my chest tighten as I stared into her eyes. She was serious about this and I took a moment to consider her words. It didn’t take long, because I found I did understand. She was telling me that I had given her permission and only with my permission was this moment possible. While I think she was implying that I could take away that permission, we both knew that wasn’t going to happen—at least not with the guys she regularly did stuff with.

“I understand.”

She smiled, but it quickly morphed into an impish glee. “Maybe next week you’ll put on a better show? It’s like you weren’t even trying.” She huffed, giving me a hurt look. “One day, I would like to actually be with my boyfriend instead of some random guy.”

“Hey!” Colin said, catching that last bit.

Stepping back, she let go of my hands. She held eye contact as Colin swept in, putting his arm around her and guiding her to the door.

“Drive safe, Isaac!” she called back.

“H-have fun.” I winced. Have fun? Really? What the fuck.

It earned me a look back though. Colin’s arm still around her, she gave me a smirk that told me she was way ahead of me.