Intermission - Things they need to talk about.

Later that evening, after they left Oliver’s house, Grace insisted they go to her house for a while.

Mila was a little tired. It had been a fun day, but now she wanted to go back home, lay on her bed and mindlessly scroll down through her social media pages until she fell asleep. Grace, however, seemed serious, so Sarah drove them to the brunette’s house. With her dad still out, the girls had all the privacy they needed.

“Now you can tell us what’s on your mind?” Sarah asked as they went into Grace’s bedroom. They all sat on her bed facing each other.

Grace let out a soft groan and rubbed her face. She sometimes acted like this when she couldn’t find the words to say what she wanted, which was rare for Grace. She was the most eloquent of the three, and usually only Alice could keep up with more high-brow conversations.

“It’s… about Oliver.”

“Not that big of a surprise.” Sarah shrugged. “What about him?”

“Rather… It’s about me. I think.” Grace bit her lip, and her hands pulled on the hem of her dress skirt.

No stranger to being at a loss for words, Mila gave her friend time and Sarah a soft elbow on the ribs when she tried to hurry her up.

“Have you… ever had the thought that…” Grace smiled wryly, “Oliver would look good with another girl?”

The tiny hairs on the back of Mila’s neck stood up and a chill ran through her. Her mind immediately went back to just hours before.

Biting her lip and rubbing the bridge of her nose, Sarah asked, “Just to be clear, you don’t mean any of us three, do you?”

Grace nodded.

“H-Have you?” Mila asked carefully. “Have you thought that Oliver looked…” There was no need to finish the sentence.

Grace answered with the slowest of nods, eyes looking down at her bed covers.

“Shit. You mean I’m not alone in this?”

Mila and Grace’s heads snapped to Sarah the moment they heard her.

“Y-You too!?” Mila asked.

Sarah nodded. “I don’t know what it is, but sometimes I picture it and…”

“And?”

“...And I… don’t hate it.”

“Dammit.” Grace sighed loudly. “I was counting on you calling me an idiot, Sarah.”

“...”

A heavy silence loomed over the three friends. While it did, Mila couldn’t stop herself from thinking back to their time in Oliver’s room just earlier. He was uncomfortable at first, but soon he started to loosen up a bit, even with six other people in there with him. All girls, too, but Mila wondered if his sister counted. And then there was Noelle.

“Did you notice Noelle was checking Oliver out?” Mila asked her friends.

Grace chuckled. “Yes. She was trying so hard not to, but she looked his way every other minute when she wasn’t playing the game. It was really cute.”

“It’s not what I imagined,” Sarah said. “I’d be a bit more comfortable if it was Alice.”

“Alice, huh?” Mila frowned. “Oliver would treat her better than her ex ever did.”

“Isn’t that true?” Grace sighed. “That girl is closing herself too much. Seeing she gets along with Noelle and Isabelle puts me a bit more at ease, but still.”

“You can’t blame her, after what happened,” Sarah pointed out.

“I know that. It just makes me believe that we made a mistake. Screw the presidency. We shouldn’t have left her alone.” Grace grimaced. “She works far more than she needs to, AND she keeps up with her studies.”

Mila had a thought. “I wonder if Isabelle and Noelle know about her little obsession?”

Sarah raised an eyebrow. “You think she hasn’t told them?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Grace pouted. “She’s kind of embarrassed of it.”

“Which is stupid,” Mila added. “I think it’s the coolest thing.”

“Well, it’s one more thing that could get her in trouble if word got around,” Sarah said. “Scratch that. It’s worse than being friends with us. It’s straight up illegal.”

Mila winced. “It sounds terrible when you say it like that.”

“She’ll be fine. Her brother is usually with her,” Grace told them. “But changing the topic, there were other things I wanted to ask you.”

“Hm?”

“Mila, are you using much makeup or creams these days?”

“Ah?” Makeup and creams? Wait, now that she mentioned it… “I… don’t think so. I thought I had to buy some more this month, but when I checked I noticed I had barely used any.”

“Sarah?”

“Same, actually.”

“What about your weight?”

“I’ve lost just under two kilos in the past two months,” Sarah quickly answered, touching her lower abdominals. “Trying to lose fat here was always the hardest for me, but nearly all the extra is gone now.”

“I can’t say as accurately as Sarah can,” Mila said, “but a couple of my shirts feel a bit looser, mostly around the back and the waist.”

“How are you feeling?” Grace asked. “Anything wrong with you?”

Sarah narrowed her eyes, but answered clearly. “No. If anything, I’m better than ever.”

“I’m actually waking up before my alarm now,” Mila said. “And I don’t feel tired at all. I feel great. And now that I think about it, my period didn’t hit me anywhere near as hard as it usually does.”

Grace blinked. “Your period?”

“Yeah. I usually get big headaches, right? And mood swings? But it was really smooth this month. Barely felt it.”

“Mine doesn’t hit me as hard as yours, but now that you mention it…”

“Where are you going with this, Grace?” Sarah asked.

“The three of us are losing weight without it negatively affecting our health. In fact, we all feel better than before, and it’s happening despite our one or two extra trips to the coffee shop. We look good, even needing less makeup. It’s even affecting our periods. Why do you think this is happening?”

Mila was confused. “I… don’t know. When you put it like that, it’s weird, isn’t it?”

Sarah nodded. “What IS different?” After a second, she got it. “Oliver!”

“Oliver?” Mila asked.

“Sex is proven to be beneficial for the body,” Sarah explained. “It reduces stress, lowers blood pressure, strengthens your immune system, improves your sleep, not to mention it can make for a mean workout. But…”

“Not to this extent, right?” Grace asked Sarah.

The blonde nodded again. “It was never this drastic before. Then again, none of the previous guys were… Oliver.”

Mila felt a couple of steps behind her two friends, but the pieces were slowly falling in place. “Wait. Are you saying… Sex with Oliver is helping our health? More than it should?”

“Drastically so,” Sarah said, then groaned. “I can’t believe I didn’t notice it.”

“You work out more than we do,” Grace told her. “Your diet is different, too. But it was noticeable for me, and I haven’t done anything different these past two months. You know, other than being with Oliver.”

“It all comes back to him, doesn’t it?” Sarah sighed. “Well, we knew there was something strange about him.”

“Don’t say it like it’s a bad thing,” Mila told her.

“I’m not. But you can’t deny it’s weird.”

Mila couldn’t refute that. “Should we be worried, then?”

“I… don’t think so,” Grace said. “Cautious, maybe, but not worried. Let’s monitor our condition more closely now. If you notice anything off, tell the others.”

Sarah and Mila agreed.

“Still, this is pretty cool,” Mila said, giggling. “Not only does it feel good to have sex with him, but it’s also good for you!”

“If there are no side effects, yeah,” Sarah said. “We should go for a general checkup at the doctor, just in case.”

“Good idea,” Grace agreed. She then chuckled. “It’s always like this with us. We jump from topic to topic without closing any one.”

“Right. So… What do we do about…” Mila swallowed. “Oliver and other girls?”

Sarah bit her lip. “I kind of… want to encourage it. Kind of. It’s scary, but…”

“Shit, I’m the same,” Grace admitted. “Mila?”

Mila pictured Oliver holding Noelle like he did with her. She pictured him kissing Alice’s cheek in that loving way of his. Her chest warmed up at the thought.

“Only if it’s either Alice or Noelle.”

“I think he likes Noelle, actually,” Grace said. “He’ll never admit it, of course, but the signs were there.”

“But how do we encourage this?” Sarah asked. “Do we just tell Oliver he’s free to flirt with them?”

“Even if we do, it means nothing if he doesn’t want to,” Grace said. “He’s been making strides in talking to people, but he’s still all stiff around Alice and Noelle.”

Mila grinned. “What if we get him into the student council?”

“All spots are taken, and I’d rather not do something so obvious as to ask Alice to kick someone out to let Oliver in.” Grace sighed. “I think we might have to step aside a little bit.”

Mila understood, and so long as it was only for a while, she accepted it.

After they ended their conversation, Sarah drove Mila to her house. Even after it was over, however, one question still lingered, one none of them could answer.

Why was sex with Oliver so different?

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