Old with the New

It took a bit of convincing, but I managed to talk Mike into coming along for a small get-together with some of my new friends. When it sounded like Ryan and Sarah were going to a mid-week movie to take advantage of the discounted tickets, I jumped on the opportunity. It wasn’t a movie I’d normally see, but it was important to get Mike interacting in a low-stake group setting.

He was nervous as hell when I picked him up, but I managed to calm him down on the way to the theater. Ryan and Sarah were already there waiting and I saw Callie, Lily, and Cameron in line for snacks. It seemed like they had decided to tag along at the last minute.

“Hey guys,” I said walking over.

“Isaac! Good to see you, man,” Ryan said, slapping me on the back. I’d noticed he was a touchy-feely sort of guy. It worked for him. Sarah said her own hellos, giving a little wave.

“Ryan, this is my best friend, Mike. Mike, this is Ryan.”

“Nice to meet you,” Mike said, offering his hand.

“Same!”

“And this lovely woman is Sarah.”

“Nice to meet you!” Sarah skipped the handshake and went straight for the hug. Mike wasn’t expecting that and looked at me like a child being dragged into an unmarked white van.

We made small talk while we waited for the others to join. I did another round of introductions and things took off. I stayed next to Mike, following along with the conversation. When it got too much and there were too many eyes on him, I pulled the conversation away from him, leaving him with a smaller number of people to talk to. He seemed to be making good inroads with Ryan, but Ryan had a way with people. The other thing was Mike was totally crushing on Sarah. He seemed fine when he was talking with Lily and Callie. Sarah? A sputtering mess.

With five minutes to go, we headed to our movie. Mike, Ryan, and Callie led the way, all talking with excited energy.

“Emma not come?” Sarah asked as she hung back with me.

“When I told her what movie we were seeing her exact words were, ‘I would rather drink bleach and set myself on fire.’ So no. She didn’t come.”

She laughed at that. “Emma does not like scary movies.”

“I don’t mind them.”

“You don’t get scared?”

“Oh, they terrify me. The key is to be so terrified, you freeze up and can’t show fear.” She enjoyed my joke, laughing as we walked.

“Sounds like you are going to be my big, strong man to protect me.” Her arm went through mine, hand grabbing mine as she walked closer to me. There was something in the way she looked at me. A promise of sorts for being her protector.

My heart raced as I realized what was happening, but not in the way it was when I was with Emma.

“Um, Sarah?”

“Hmm?” she said, batting her eyes. I didn’t know what to say. How did I turn her down gently? Fortunately, the situation corrected itself. Blinking, she seemed to realize what was happening. “Oh. Oh. Shit. Sorry,” she said, quickly releasing my hand. I noticed she didn’t let go of my arm. “A bit of a habit I’m afraid.”

I relaxed. “It’s fine.”

She grinned. “Were you at least a little tempted?”

“Hard not to be.”

She chuckled. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell Emma.” Her attention went to the group in front. “You inviting your friend to our Friday get-together?”

The look in her eye surprised me. While it was true that I didn’t know her all that well, she always struck me as a sweet girl. That bubbly, friendly personality of hers made me overlook an important fact: she was a member of this group like everyone else. I was getting a powerful feeling that Sarah was the type of girl who enjoyed sex. A lot of sex. Mike seemed to have caught her attention as well.

I was going to have to handle this carefully.

“Not sure yet. He is like how I was before I met Emma. He doesn’t have a lot of self-confidence and is a bit socially awkward. I was hoping introducing him to the group would help with that.”

“He seems fine to me.”

I looked ahead to find him explaining something to Ryan, who was nodding in interest.

“Yeah, he does.”

“You should invite him.”

“I’ll talk to him.”

She smiled. “Don’t worry,” she said, finally releasing my arm. “I’ll make sure the other girls don’t overwhelm him.”

By taking him all for yourself?

Rubbing my chin, I watched Mike interact with the others. Hmm. Maybe I was making a mistake here…

Sighing, I followed after the others. I was going to have to have a serious conversation with Mike.

The movie was appropriately terrifying. I was petrified in my seat, unable to move as the movie flashed by. We left the theater as a group and spent ten or so minutes talking. Saying our goodbyes, Mike and I headed to my car. I noticed he was eyeing Sarah as she went off with Ryan.

“They seem cool,” Mike said as he walked beside me. “Ryan especially. Did you know he is a huge Star Trek fan? We had a small conversation on lore. Was not expecting that.”

“Glad you enjoyed it. I told you they were cool.” I grinned. “Saw you eyeing Sarah there…”

He looked away. “Don’t even start.”

“She’s a pretty girl.”

“Yeah, and way out of my league.”

“Like Emma?” He froze. I stopped and turned to face him. “Sorry. That was—”

“Emma was… special circumstances.”

I sighed, rubbing the back of my neck. “Mike, they are all like that.”

“Huh?”

“I introduced you to them because I think they are great people and I hope you feel the same way, but they operate differently than we are used to. They are super accepting, but it’s a bit of a two-way street. You basically have two options. The first is where I am. I hang out with them, have fun, that sort of thing. It’s more or less regular friendship stuff. The other…” I sighed. There really was no way to gracefully explain it. “They have a bit of a free use thing going on. It’s a bit more complex, but that’s the short of it. A lot of casual sex going on in the group. People switch partners pretty regularly.”

I took a moment to gauge his reaction. He was taking it better than I thought he was. Surprised, sure, but he wasn’t shutting down.

“I understand if that makes you uncomfortable and want to avoid it. I just thought you should at least see them the way I do before you make a decision or not.”

“That… That is a lot to take in.”

“Yeah.”

He glanced back in the direction Sarah and Ryan disappeared in. “So she…”

“Yeah. Her and Ryan have been a thing this week. But that’s only this week. Next week, she’ll be with someone else.”

He looked at me. “You find the weirdest people.”

“Probably because weird people attract one another?”

Looking a bit sullen, he sighed. “I need some time to think.”

“Sure. And don’t feel pressured about it. If this isn’t for you, no worries. We can still hang out and do stuff together.”

He nodded. “Thanks, dude. For tonight too. I had a lot of fun.”

I slapped his arm. “No worries. I had fun too.”