Learning the Ropes

I was going to die a slow and painful ****. I was glad Kaylee was having a great time of me making an ass of myself. I was a threat to not only myself, but everyone around me. The problem wasn’t going or steering. Stopping, an important aspect of the sport, continued to elude me. I don’t even know why I was having so much trouble. Either way, I was making great progress on the children’s ‘slope.’ So far, my best attempts getting down had been me tumbling ass over head while Kaylee doubled over in laughter. The worst was when I lost control and nearly ran over a group of women heading from one of the hotel buildings to the lift. They seemed angry until they realized I was a guy. One of them even hit on me, suggesting she could be my teacher. Fortunately, Kaylee had glided up by then and saved me from her rather lustful stares.

Were all the women here that horny? I’d noticed it before, but I was definitely getting looks. It was like the women here were on the prowl for single or unattended guys. I didn’t think much of it yesterday when Kaylee and I were walking around, but now it was really obvious. The only thing keeping women from approaching was Kaylee’s constant presence. This was my first time out of school or the immediate area in my teenage years. The school was a rare case where the gender ratios were somewhat balanced. Out here in the ‘real world,’ I could see a massive difference. While there were guys here, women vastly outnumbered their male counterparts. Especially here in the beginner area. I was surrounded by female couples and their children.

At school, I was only starting to get used to being looked at now that I was dating Kaylee. Out here though was another game entirely. Most girls at school saw me as a curiosity. Here, it was straight lewd ogling. For the first time in my life, I found myself somewhat thankful I wasn’t built like Liam or Sean. I had a feeling a lot of women would be approaching me regardless of Kaylee if I was a bit farther down the attractiveness bell curve.

“You’re getting better,” Kaylee said, effortlessly gliding to a stop near where I had face planted. I felt little more than a tangle of sore limbs as I took her offered hand. Brushing snow off my snow pants and coat, I began the embarrassing task of collecting my skis and snapping the awkward boots into them. At least I wasn’t falling over while standing anymore. Mostly.

“I’m starting to think I like the idea of skiing more than actual skiing.”

“Once you get the hang of it, the whole thing gets better.”

“Sorry,” I said, getting everything set again. “I know you’d rather be out there on the slopes.”

“You kidding? I’m having a blast.”

“At my expense.”

“Well, yeah. That’s the best kind of fun.” Ah, what a nice smile. “Here, let me show you again…”

It took a few hours, but I think I was getting the hang of things. We took a short break for lunch. Sitting next to each other, we watched the people pass as we munched on sandwiches.

“I think I know enough that I can practice here on my own. You can go do some harder stuff on your own.”

“No can do,” she said before taking a big bite.

“Why not?”

She chewed thoughtfully. “Can’t leave you unsupervised.”

“Having too much fun watching me crash and burn?”

“That too, but not entirely. Leaving a pretty teen boy alone in a place like this? I’d never see you again for the rest of the trip.”

I laughed. “So I’m not crazy then. You’ve noticed that too?”

She shrugged. “It’s not so different than anywhere else. I’m just used to being on the other side of it.”

“Huh?”

She took a bite of her sandwich to buy her time. There was just a bit of pink to her cheeks, but that could have been the cold. “Usually I’m the girl thinking, ‘Oh wow. That’s a hot guy,’ as a couple passed by. Now I’m the one with the hot guy.”

“Standards must be pretty low for me to be in the ‘hot’ category,” I said before chewing on a bite.

Kaylee sighed heavily. “I really wish you’d stop putting yourself down like that. The only thing keeping you from being more popular with girls is you never seem interested in them.” She grinned. “Not going to lie, that probably works in your favor too. Abby, Ellie, Sarah, and I have all talked about—” She stopped suddenly.

I had just been about to take another bite. Stopping, I looked over at her. “What?”

“Nothing.”

I pressed my lips together in a frown, staring at her. “Now you have me interested.”

She looked at her sandwich like she was debating how much time shoving the rest of it in her mouth was going to get her. Instead, she shook her head and looked at me. “We’ve all talked about trying to sleep with you,” she said quietly.

Never figured something like that happened. “Really?”

“Don’t sound so excited.”

“I’m just surprised.”

“Why? I’ve told you before, you’re an attractive, fun guy to be around. Not all girls are solely attracted to looks. Personality and brains are important too—especially if you are looking for something longer term. At least for me.”

I scratched my cheek. “Why didn’t you?”

“Try to sleep with you?” I nodded. She was silent for a moment. “The same reason I never slept with Liam. You were a friend. That friendship meant a lot more to me than sex.” She gave me a sheepish grin. “I was kinda waiting for the other girls to make a move first and let me know how it was. Plus, I knew you had a crush on me. It would have made things awkward.”

“Great. Apparently, my secret crush was anything but secret.”

“You were pretty bad at hiding it. In the end, I’m glad we never had sex.”

“Wow. That’s exactly what I want to hear from my girlfriend.”

She slapped my arm. With all the layers, I didn’t even feel it. “Back then. I was glad we never did in the past. I’m pretty sure if we did, we wouldn’t be together now.”

“How so?”

“I wasn’t ready for a relationship. I mean, besides the one I had with Zoe. I knew I wanted one and thought I was ready, but looking back on how I was in the past…” She shook her head. “Your feelings would have gotten in the way. You would have gotten too clingy…”

“And you would have dumped me.”

She nodded, looking guilty.

“And now?”

“You are super clingy.” She grinned. “But that doesn’t matter to me because I’m smart enough now to see that’s exactly what I want from you.” Finishing the rest of her sandwich, she got up. “Come on. I want to see you make an ass of yourself some more. Make me proud, and maybe you can graduate from making an ass of yourself on the kid's slope to a beginner one.”