Emma and the Prize Pool

Friday’s meetup was a weird one. All of us were gathered at a park. Not in the park, but the parking lot of the park. We had circled up the cars and were using the headlights to illuminate the area as the sun dipped beneath the trees. It was a nice night, so I wasn’t complaining, but I wasn’t sure what the game was going to be considering there wasn’t really anything around us. We were fairly secluded and I hadn’t seen a car go past since we got here.

“Thank god the week is over,” Colin said as he leaned against the hood of his car.

“I believe it. Grant’s cock is huge. I don’t even know how you are sitting right now,” Sarah fired off. He responded with a single finger.

Grant stood up and raised his hand. “All in favor of never letting Isaac pick pairings, raise your hand.”

“Hey!” I cried as the vote turned unanimous. I stared at Emma, who had her hand raised. I put my hand over my heart, shocked. “Et tu, Emma?”

“Because I know you’ll just claim me for yourself.”

“Ouch, bro. Sounds like Emma wasn’t all that impressed with your performance,” Colin said, chuckling. Despite the words, there wasn’t any malice there and I let the comment roll over me without issue.

Emma was the one who spoke up in my defense. “More like I don’t have three hours to spend trying to sate him. That and I’d prefer not to wake up sore tomorrow either.”

“I have three hours!” Sarah said, shooting her hand up. “I don’t mind being sore either!”

“Not a chance, slut. He’s mine.”

Sarah grinned at her. “Can’t blame a girl for trying.” I think she was probably the only girl here that could get away with saying that. Even if Emma was smiling, I could tell by the way she gripped her arm that she wasn’t liking the idea of me with another girl—even if Sarah was only joking about it.

Ryan took the moment to bring out a cooler and set it in the middle of the ring of cars. “Thank you everyone for making it here. I figured tonight would be a nice change of pace after last week. Spring is finally here and it’s nice to enjoy the night sky.” My eyes went wide as I saw what was in the cooler. Beer. Bottles and bottles of beer. “You know the rules. If you don’t want one, all good. Guys only get one and only one since you’re driving. Girls can have as many as they want so long as everyone who wants one gets one.”

“I need all the beer I can get to forget last week,” Lily said as she went to the cooler.

“Oh shush. You enjoyed it,” Sarah said with a knowing laugh.

“Wait. Did you two...?” Colin asked as his eyes went from girl to girl. Face red, Lily said nothing as she took a bottle and quickly retreated out of the center. Colin immediately looked to Cameron.

“I know what you are thinking, and fuck you,” Cameron answered with crossed arms.

“Flattered for the offer, but I think Ryan is more your type.”

Leaning over to Emma I poked her arm for attention. “I think your friends are a bad influence.”

She rolled her eyes. “Want me to get you one?”

“Sure.”

She handed me the open bottle as she returned. She was already taking a long chug before I took my first sip. It was…okay.

Emma let out a happy breath as she damn near emptied the bottle. My jaw hung open at the sight.

“What?”

“You drink?”

“Not really.”

“That doesn’t look like a, ‘not really’ sort of sip.”

She wiped at her mouth, grinning. “What? Afraid I’m going to wasted and end up screwing some random guy here?”

“Yes.”

“You would like that.”

“Also yes, but I feel compelled to answer no in this case.”

“Party pooper,” she said before taking a much smaller sip.

Sipping at my beer, I ended up making some conversation with Hailey and Grant. The way he was hovering over her, I figured he was already trying to stake claim. She didn’t seem to mind, nervously sipping at her beer as she made eyes on his rather large muscles.

The darkness crept in around us as the sun dipped under the horizon. The beers were gone and while everyone was enjoying talking, it seemed like everyone was ready for whatever game was planned tonight and to have the victors enjoy their spoils.

Once more, Ryan was center stage with that big smile on his face. “Bet you’re all wondering what the game is.”

“The suspense is killing us,” Justin said.

“Rock-Paper-Scissors!” There were groans and a few, ‘seriously?’ thrown out at the news. “Going to be a quick one today. Guys, pair up and start playing. Best of three. Winners play each other until we have our champion. Losers play each other to determine who is the least loser of the bunch.”

Emma pushed me into the group with a playful cheer. I beat Justin but lost to Grant. I didn’t feel so bad considering he went on to be the champion of the might. As I expected, he immediately claimed Hailey. Cameron was next, picking Sarah. Colin picked Callie.

“I’ll soothe that broken heart of yours,” he said, grinning as she moved to stand next to him. She had ‘broken up’ with Parker earlier in the week and returned to the Prize Pool. She looked him over before sighing, shaking her head. “That hurts,” he said, unable to hide his grin.

Standing next to his car with his hands in his pocket, I noticed Mike looking at me. I tilted my head slightly, wondering why he was giving me that look.

“Emma,” he said. Oh shit. I completely forgot about our conversation earlier in the week. I didn’t actually expect him to pick her. From her look of surprise, I don’t think she did either. The next in line went, but my attention was on Emma who was looking at me.

“You going over?” I asked, trying to sound and act as nonchalant as I could. My heart was racing. It hadn’t been all that long since I had watched her with Ryan, yet it seemed like forever since I’d felt this way.

“You talk him into this?”

“I may have mentioned it.”

“Isaac…”

“I mentioned it. In the end, he picked you.” I watched her shifting nervously. “Something wrong?”

“It’s different with him.”

Alarm bells went off as I stood. “What?”

“Not like that. He’s your friend.”

I relaxed a little. “Everyone here is my friend.”

“Not like him. I’m not under any illusions any of us are going to be in contact after high school ends. Not us,” she said quickly. “Not him. The three of us? We are something far longer.”

“I know.”

“I don’t regret being his first and I enjoyed it, but sleeping with him again… It will change things.”

For the first time, I was genuinely nervous. She was taking this seriously. Mike had been joking about stealing her, but what if there was something there? I knew he had no interest in her and I trusted he was telling the truth. I never considered her point of view.

I wasn’t going to jump to conclusions, even if my monkey brain was screaming at me. “How so?”

“Mike is a great guy. I care about him. Not like that. Never like that. I’m not going to fall for him or anything, but I also can’t guarantee it’s a simple physical thing like it is with the others. Tonight it will be. Same with two weeks from now. But what about six months from now? A year? Two? Four?” Her hand found mine. “This isn’t about me sleeping with him tonight. I want to know if you are okay with the possibility that we become a regular thing. Once we open this door, I’m afraid it won’t be easy to shut and will get messy if we ever want to in the future.”

“I trust you, and I trust Mike.”

She sighed. “You and diving headfirst into bad decision after bad decision.”

“Hey! My hard head and inability to think about my own wellbeing led me to landing the girl of my dreams.”

She smiled. “True.” The smile didn’t last long. “So you are okay with Mike and I becoming sex friends?”

“How is that any different than now?”

“Now, he only gets me for the week. As sex friends, he can have me any time I’m not with you.”

“Don’t threaten me with a good time.”

She didn’t look happy at that. “Isaac, this is serious.”

“I am being serious,” I said as I stood in front of her. “Is being with Mike going to make you love me any less?”

“Not at all.”

“And him being with you isn’t going to change how I feel about you.” I brushed at her hair, grinning like an idiot. “And let’s be honest here. Any time you’re not with me, you’ll be too exhausted from when you were to want to have sex with him anyway.”

She took a deep breath, shaking her head as she closed her eyes and released it slowly. “You are so…”

“Lovable?”

“Infuriating.”

I grinned. “Love you too.”

“I’m going to go fuck your friend’s brains out now.” I grabbed her, stopping her from storming off. She melted against me as I kissed her. She tasted of beer and was wearing that spicy perfume instead of the softer one. Before she got her fill I pushed her away. The dumbfounded look she gave me was adorable. “You want the rest of that, you’ll have to come over tomorrow. My parents are going to be out late.”

I laughed as she gave me the finger, heading over to Mike. He gave me a questioning look and I gave him a smile and thumbs up.

While Emma and I had our conversation, people had been leaving. Hopping into my car, I waited as I watched Mike hold the door open for Emma before going around to his side. As they drove off, I followed behind them until we had to split, going different directions.

Emma thought I wasn’t taking things seriously, but I was. As I told her, I trusted them and I had no fear Emma was going to start developing feelings for him or Mike would suddenly want something more with Emma. Like she had said, things were going to change one way or another once we graduated, and the fact was, Mike, Emma, and I weren’t going anywhere. College waited for us, but I wasn’t planning to break up with Emma or anything. She didn’t get into the same college as us, but hers was practically down the street so distance wasn’t a concern. One of the reasons I was pushing the house thing with Mike was because I expected Emma to be living with us too.

I loved Emma and my relationship with Mike had changed drastically since she’d first started playing DnD with us. A lot of distance we had for each other had shrunk. When Emma talked about having Mike as a sex friend and what that would entail, I felt strangely comforted. We were in a bit of a unicorn situation right now, especially him. Eight stupid hot girls ready and willing for sex? What were the odds lightning hitting the same spot twice? At least this way, Mike had Emma. I know he had big plans for college and I was going to do everything I could to make them come true, but it was nice to know that his sexual needs would be covered. No idea how college was going to turn out, but the last thing I wanted was for Mike to fall back into his old ways.

It wasn’t purely altruistic on my part either, even if I wished that were the case. If he and Emma had a thing going on, maybe the three of us could try something. Not like a relationship or anything. I wasn’t going to share Emma that way. But the idea of Mike and I taking turns, even having her at the same time…

But that was a perversion for another time. If it didn’t happen, it didn’t happen. Right now, it was simply about being happy. I was happy with my relationship with Emma. She seemed happy. I wanted Mike to be happy too. Regardless of what happened between him and Emma, I swore I was going to do everything I could to land him a girlfriend—no. That was too small for such a great friend. I wanted to find someone who would both be happy and make him happy his entire life.

I was going to land him a wife.

No idea how I was going to pull that one off, but I had time. It didn’t have to be in college, but I wasn’t planning to go our separate ways after college either. He joked about nepotism, but I had every intention of dragging him along with me. Friends like him were too rare to let go.