At Sarah’s house (Part 8)

We ordered pizza about an hour later. We ate at the table in the kitchen, but got dressed before that at my request because the idea of sitting my naked ass on the chairs Sarah’s family used every day made me feel disgusting and guilty. It helped that we’d been doing it for a while now, so the post orgasmic clarity was settling in for Sarah as well. That said, though we did get dressed, Sarah simply put on some panties and a white t-shirt without a bra under it and she asked me to only put on my pants. Knowing her breast hung freely inside her t-shirt was arousing in itself, so I couldn’t deny her request to let her stare at my bare chest.

After taking a bite of her slice of pizza, Sarah said, “I think it was your turn to ask a question.”

I nodded. We were still playing that. “Mmm… Favorite food?”

Sarah groaned and dragged her hand along her face. “Anything junk. Pizza, hamburgers, french fries, hot dogs, onion rings, donuts… I hate them and I love them. I only allow myself to have any of them twice a month.”

Man, these girls didn’t take their bodies for granted. Exercise and a balanced diet, only allowing themselves to eat their favorites every once in a while… Again, it made me feel inadequate, but more importantly, it made me realize something.

I’d suddenly woken up with a strong, fit body. It happened literally overnight. But there was zero guarantee that it would stay that way. Mila, Grace and Sarah liked the way I looked. They made a point of telling me so. If I took this body for granted and somehow lost it…

I needed to start working out for real.

“My turn,” Sarah continued. “Do you watch sports, Oliver?”

I thought about it. “Not much. I’ve watched boxing matches and videos on famous boxers when procrastinating. It’s cool. I used to enjoy playing basketball as a kid, though.”

“Just as a kid? Why’d you stop?”

“...When you’re consistently picked last and everyone groans when they get you, you kind of lose motivation to continue.”

Sarah winced. “Okay, I see.”

"Also, I'm really short," I added.

…Now that the topic came out, maybe I could finally ask Sarah what I’d been meaning to all day. “Sarah? You were… in the tennis club, weren’t you?”

“Oh. That.” She sighed. “Yeah, I was.”

“W-Why’d you quit?” I asked it that way because I didn’t want to assume the rumors of her being kicked out were true. However…

“I didn’t quit. I got kicked out for hitting an asshole with a racket.”

So it was true. “Why go that far?” I asked carefully.

“Dammit.” Sarah sighed again. “Grace told you, didn’t she? About her blackmailing people?” So it was related. I nodded. “I was with her, in a way. So was Mila. Grace did most of the dirty work, but we were out there helping her catch these dickheads. It was always her name that came up, never ours. That’s how the idiot wanted it. Not a damn thing is said about Mila and I, even though we’re just as guilty.”

I smiled wryly. “Grace really cares for you, doesn’t she?”

Sarah nodded with a pout. “And just as much for our other friend. Goes without saying that I care about them all, too. So when I heard one of the sons of bitches bragging to his friend about how he had A… A…our fourth friend eating from the palm of his hand, I lost it. I saw red and threw my racket at him in the middle of practice. I was going to beat him up, too, but other people intervened and stopped things before they escalated. I got suspended and kicked from the club, mostly because I refused to state my reason for hitting him.”

A fit of rage over an injustice done to a friend. I could understand, and I believe many others could, as well. Yet because Sarah wanted to keep her friend’s identity a secret, people thought she was just naturally violent.

I grimaced. “Grace said your friend is at least doing well now. Is that true?”

Sarah relaxed, threw her head back and rubbed her face. “Yeah, it is. And thank god nothing scarring happened to her. I’m not gonna tell you who she is, but don’t hold it against her for not hanging out with us anymore, okay? Before you get any ideas, it’s not that she’s mad at us for what we did. She… had her own goals, and hanging out with us troublemakers got in her way. We’re the ones who distanced ourselves from her.”

I admit, I was growing more and more curious about who this girl was, but I feared asking. Grace and Sarah were determined not to reveal her identity, and I had to respect that.

“I think anyone would’ve done what you did, Sarah. Hitting that guy, I mean.”

“Nah. Most people have the self-control to realize it was a stupid idea before actually doing it. Unlike what Grace was doing, I only caused more trouble and didn’t solve anything. What still terrifies me is thinking that hitting him may have led to our friend having it worse. She says nothing happened, but…”

“I’m sorry. Thank you for telling me, Sarah. I promise I won’t tell anyone.”

“You better.” She chuckled. “I’d been meaning to tell you, but… it’s difficult, you know? I can’t exactly go ‘Hey, want to hear about this terrible thing I did?’ Not a great way to… N-Never mind.” Sarah’s cheeks turned red, and she looked away from me.

“I’m not anyone to criticize the things you’ve done. From an objective view, then, yes, you’ve done bad things. You shouldn’t be blackmailing people. You shouldn't use ****. There could’ve been a better way to solve things. But it’s easy to say these things after the fact, isn’t it? When you feel your back is against a wall…” I grunted. “I’m sorry. I don’t really know what to say. I just… believe your reasons and understand why you did those things.”

“That’s enough for us, Oliver,” Sarah said, an easy smile on her face. “Remember when I said everyone comes with their baggage? This is ours. There’s people out there who don’t like us, and you’ll sadly be associated with us if you keep hanging out with us. You ready for that?”

It was scary, yeah. It meant people I didn’t know would probably dislike me just because I hung out with Mila, Grace and Sarah. But… Why did I have to care about people I didn’t know? Especially if they were the type to judge someone simply based on the company they keep? Why would I choose a bunch of strangers over the three girls who accepted me despite my own flaws?

“I think I can handle it,” I told her, smiling.

Sarah mirrored my smile before she chuckled, stretched her arms towards the ceiling and groaned languidly. “Oliver, want to play tennis with me sometime?”

“Play tennis?”

“We don’t need to use the courts at school. We can rent a court someplace else. That’s what we do with my folks.”

I nodded. “I’d love to. Though I’ll be very bad.”

“I’ll teach you, of course. It'll be fun, I promise.”

“I don’t doubt it.”

We finished eating, the atmosphere somehow even lighter than it was before. Sarah had gotten something heavy out of her chest, and she was in an even better mood after lunch.

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