Plans.

“Holy crap, thanks for pushing me into it,” Kevin said, still laughing from excitement and euphoria. Then he turned to me. “You too, Oliver. Jesus Christ! I can’t believe that just happened!”

Me? What the hell did I do?

The bell signaling the end of the first recess rained on our parade. Still, I accomplished my task and more. Thomas looked fine, and I didn’t think he was faking it. I could totally believe he was the type to feel better if his friends were doing well. I mean, it took only a glance to see how damn happy he was that Kevin got a date with his crush.

“See you later, Oliver,” he told me, offering a fistbump which I met (with no delay this time). “Thanks for coming to check up on me. I have practice today, but we can go for burgers tomorrow if you want.”

“Sounds good.”

“Hey,” Ben spoke up and patted my shoulder. “Nice talking to you, Oliver. We need to hang out more.”

“Same, dude,” Kevin said. “I said you saved Thomas’ ass that one time, but you really saved the whole team. I don’t think I ever thanked you for that.”

I saw the lightbulb turning on inside Thomas’ head. “Then buy him a burger tomorrow. You don’t mind if they come with us, right, Oliver?”

Huh? Hanging out with Thomas, Kevin and Ben? That… made me nervous, but more than that, it made me excited. “S-Sure. It was g-great talking to you guys, too.”

“Then I’m buying you and Thomas a burger tomorrow,” Kevin said, utterly incapable of doing anything but smile.

“Awesome,” Ben grinned. “See you around, man!”

We parted ways there in the hallway. They went to their classroom, I went to mine. And before I could go in, someone tapped my shoulder from behind. I turned around to see Sarah smirking.

“I saw that,” she said.

“Saw what?”

“You talking to Kevin and Ben just now.” She gave my shoulder a playful punch. “Nice job, Oliver,” she sang. “And you say you can’t talk to people.”

…

That had been far from ideal, I knew. I didn’t actually speak much and had stuttered quite a bit, but… It was infinitely better than I could’ve done before.

“A week ago I couldn’t have done even that,” I told her. “Thanks, Sarah.”

“I wish I could take the whole credit, but I think Mila and Grace have gotten you out of your shell more than I have. I need to step up my game.”

We went into the classroom together. “No, you’ve helped me a lot, too.”

“Good to hear. What were you talking about, anyway?”

“Hey, hey, hey!” Mila ran up to us, excitement written all over her face. “Kevin just came here and asked Lena out on a date!” she said. She then looked at me. “Is that why you asked where she was?”

I nodded. “I’ll tell you later.”

The teacher was coming in. Storytime would have to wait.

And it waited. Until lunch time.

Once more, the girls and I went to the old music room with our lunch boxes, got some tables together and ate there. As we did, I told them what had happened during the first recess, omitting the part where we spoke about the… intricacies of starting a romantic relationship.

“Some things just work out, don’t they?” Grace said, cheerful. “Lena had been wondering if Kevin actually liked her or not. Poor thing suffered every time she saw him talking to another girl. Turns out he was into her all along.”

“It’s too soon to tell, but they’re starting on the right foot,” Sarah said. “As for me, I’m more proud of our dear Oliver here.” She grinned teasingly. “Look at you, making new friends already.”

I chuckled nervously. “I wouldn’t say ‘friends’. We barely know each other.”

“They’re cool guys. We’ve partied with them,” Grace said. “They’re some of the few people that know how to drink. I don’t mean they can hold their liquor, but that they know to stop when they’re hitting their limit.”

“Ben is a boxer, too, so he needs to be extra careful with his diet and **** intake. Yeah, cool guys,” Sarah added. She then frowned and poked my forehead. “And just for good measure, no, Grace and I didn’t sleep with either of them.”

I flinched. “I wasn’t thinking that!”

“Just in case you started wondering.”

Mila sighed and shook her head. “Anyway… Do you guys have plans for today? I don’t, so we could do something after school.”

“...The guys invited me to eat, but that’s tomorrow,” I said. Look at me, having plans. “I can do something today.”

“Dammit, I’m busy,” Grace sighed. “I’m meeting my mom today. She wants to go shopping with me.” Oh, right. Divorced parents. “Don’t stop on my account, though.

“Alright, I’m game,” Sarah said. “What do you propose, Mila? Since you’re the one asking.”

Mila’s cheeks reddened, but her eyes remained firm and her lips curled into a mischievous smile. “I was thinking of another trip to a certain hotel…”

W-What? All of a sudden, just like that?

“Nooooo!” Grace moaned and hid her face on the table. “Why when I’m busy?”

“I’m up for it,” Sarah agreed with a smirk. “After all, I didn’t get any this morning and I have to reward Oliver for his progress.”

I blushed deeply.

“Reward him, she says,” Mila rolled her eyes. Then, a bit more bashful, she asked me, “But what do you say, Oliver? If it’s too out of the blue, we can go another day.”

I coughed once to clear my throat and rolled my eyes away from them. “I mean… Sure, why not? I don’t have anything better to do.”

The three girls burst into laughter and Sarah beside me gave me a playful shove. But really, what did they expect me to say? Still, there was one thing that bothered me.

“Are you really okay with this, Grace?” I asked.

She chuckled. “Yeah, I am. Just joking here. But if you make it up to me another day, I’ll be very happy.”

“I promise.”

Grace smiled at me, and seeing that made me even sadder that she wouldn’t come with us. I think she noticed, too.

“Seriously, go,” she said, laughing. “Yeah, it sucks that I can’t join you, but I don’t want you guys to miss out on some fun just because I can’t go. Besides, we still don’t know if love hotels allow four people in a room.”

“We’ll ask, then,” Sarah said. She raised her arms and stretched languidly. “God, I always feel so lazy after lunch.”

We finished eating and continued talking. I took the opportunity to ask mom if it was okay that I went home a little later, and she said yes.

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