Intermission - His girlfriends.

“It really looked like I ran away from him…” Noelle lamented, hiding her face in her hands. “I hope he’ll forgive me. I wasn’t thinking straight.” She was now, though, and her initial idea still seemed like the correct one.

Her phone buzzed and Noelle looked at it immediately. Alice had answered.

-Alice: They said they’re still at school. They were waiting for Oliver, but they say that if you want to talk to them alone, they’ll text him to go ahead without them.

-Noelle: Yes, please tell them that. I need to see them.

-Alice: Okay. I won’t ask now, but will you tell me later?

-Noelle: I promise.

-Alice: Thanks. They’re in their classroom.

Noelle didn’t have the number of any of Oliver’s three girlfriends, so she had to ask Alice to contact them for her. She went to the fourth floor and found them alone in their classroom.

Milana was sitting on a desk next to the window, looking at her phone, Grace was sitting on the chair, looking out the window, and Sarah was standing behind Grace, leaning against the wall as she texted on her phone.

Okay. No cold feet, Noelle. You either do this or you lose. Simple as.

“H-Hello…” she said, nervously stepping into the classroom.

“Hey,” Milana waved to greet her with an easy, welcoming smile.

“Come in, come in,” Grace said, chuckling. “I know Sarah looks the part, but she doesn’t bite.”

“Hey!”

“Usually.”

“Hey!”

A snicker escaped Noelle. “Sorry to ask you to meet me so suddenly.”

“It’s no problem, but it is curious,” Milana said. “Did you finish talking with Oliver?”

Of course they knew. It was no wonder, but it did say a lot.

“That’s… what I wanted to talk to you about.”

Sarah nodded. “We sort of expected it. Go on, then. No fear.”

Noelle nodded back. “I’ve… got questions. So it’s true that you three…”

“...Are dating Oliver?” Milana asked. “Yes.”

“...At the same time?” Grace asked. “Yes, too. And it was mostly our idea.”

“And it was also our idea to encourage him to ask you and Alice out,” Sarah finished.

Wow. These girls were on point. Those were already three answers she was looking for. She knew all that already, but she needed to hear it from them.

“If… If it’s not a problem, c-could you tell me why?” Noelle asked. “Why are you okay with it? Why do you encourage it?” She was asking with genuine curiosity. She needed to understand.

“It’s fucking crazy, isn’t it?” Sarah said, smiling. “But it’s probably the best decision we’ve ever made.”

Seriously?

“It started on a whim,” Grace said. “For Sarah and I, at least. Mila had her eyes on him for a while before she finally talked to him.”

“R-Really?”

“Yeah.” Milana chuckled. “Couldn’t decide if he was a sweet, soft spoken guy or a cringy edgelord trying to look mysterious. Once I realized it was the former, I went for the jugular!” She laughed. “I had to, or these two would’ve taken him from me first.”

“We were at Thomas’ birthday party,” Sarah said. “We drank a bit, we talked, and then… You know.”

Noelle believed she was avoiding outright saying it out of respect for her, but her tone said enough. Sarah wanted her to know it had happened.

And… of course. Of course they would’ve… done it already. It made Noelle feel awkward. It was the same feeling as when Isabelle told her she’d done it for the first time. A feeling of inadequacy, like she was now suddenly talking to girls more experienced than her. It further hammered in the reality of it all, and because of it Noelle pushed through.

“We liked it… and him enough that we wanted to keep seeing him,” Grace said. “It wasn’t anything serious at first, so we caused the poor guy all sorts of grief. We didn’t realize he didn’t understand what we were doing.”

Milana grimaced. “He couldn’t believe we wanted to be friends with him, much less that we liked him. It took a while and a lot of talking things over, but when he finally realized that we were serious about him, he asked us out.”

“Ran to ask us, even.” Sarah laughed. “We said yes immediately.”

“But… Don’t you get… jealous?” Noelle asked.

“We thought we might, but no,” Grace answered with an easy smile. “In fact, it’s exactly the opposite of that.”

“Huh?”

“We like it,” Milana said. Her cheeks reddened, but she spoke with confidence. “I like kissing him only slightly more than I like seeing him kiss Grace and Sarah.”

Sarah sighed. “It’s a turn on. If we can’t do anything about it, we might as well embrace it.”

“Which, in time, led us to ask Oliver if he liked any other girls,” Grace followed up. “After, again, a lot of talking to keep everything crystal clear, he ended up admitting that he liked you and Alice. We told him we’d support him if he wanted to ask you out. It’s… for our pleasure as much as his.”

“He’s just too much for any one woman,” Milana lightly pouted. “He looks all cute and handsome and innocent, but in reality he’s a monster!”

“A… A monster?”

“In bed,” Grace clarified bluntly, making Noelle’s entire face burn. “Even with the three of us, he still outlasts us. It’s an experience that’s out of this world. Honestly, it’s almost as frustrating as it is hot. But it’s not just that. Oliver is special. There’s something about him that you only understand once you let him into your heart. Then you start understanding him more, to the point it’s almost supernatural. The main reason we can confidently tell him to be with other girls is because we’re so stupidly sure he’s madly in love with us. It’s impossible to feel jealous after you feel so, SO wanted.”

Feeling wanted. That… made some sense to Noelle. It made her envious, even. She was 18 years old, had never had a boyfriend, never kissed. She had friends, but had never felt wanted in that way. She wanted it.

“So?” Milana asked. “Did he ask you out?”

Noelle swallowed. “He… friendzoned me.”

“HAH!?” The triple echoed exclamation startled the redhead.

“He did what!?” Sarah asked.

“Are you sure?” Milana asked.

“That’s… not what we expected.” Grace said. “At worst we thought you’d say no, but this?”

Noelle pursed her lips. “I… I was going to say no. If he asked me, I was going to refuse because… because I didn’t think I’d be comfortable sharing him as a boyfriend.”

“Which is fair,” Sarah said.

“There’s a ‘but’ there, isn’t it?” Grace said.

Noelle nodded. “When he said he couldn’t ask me out, so he wouldn’t, I… I felt like I lost him.” Worse than that. She felt like she almost had him, could’ve had him, and then lost him. “I’m still not sure if I can do this, but I now know I’ll regret it more if I don’t. Which is why I wanted to talk to you.” Noelle took a deep breath. “W-W-Would it be okay if I asked Oliver to go out with me, too?”

She didn’t expect it, but the three girls grinned.

“Go for it,” Sarah told her. “Zero objections from me.”

“It’s actually reassuring that it’s you,” Grace said. “I don’t know why Oliver would ‘friendzone’ you, but don’t believe him. He’ll be thrilled.”

Milana hopped off the desk and walked up to Noelle. She then held her by the shoulders and turned her around to face the door.

“E-Eh?”

“We’ll talk details later, God knows there’ll be a lot, but for now, just go!” She laughed. “Go and do whatever feels right. You have our support!”

“W-Whatever feels right?” Noelle asked, looking back at Milana.

The Russian girl winked. “Whatever feels right.”

“B-But he must’ve left school already.”

“Nope.” Sarah said, holding and waving her phone, grinning. “Told him to stay right where he was. He’s still on the rooftop. Go eat him up.”

E-E-Eat him up!?

Noelle swallowed. It was the strangest thing. A part of her didn’t want to share a boyfriend. That was natural. And yet… Having these girls’ behind her, supporting her… It warmed her heart and filled her with confidence.

“I’m going, then!”

“You’re gonna kill it!” Milana said and gave her a pat on the back. “Go!”

And so, Noelle ran as fast as she could back to the rooftop.

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