Tick Tock On The Clock

"Tick tock!" girl-Kim practically cried out, catching herself at the last minute and remembering that we were in a library and so strangling it off into a kind of choked out cry at the end before it warbled down into a whisper, "It's been twenty two minutes and you two haven't even started to change yet. You've got no time. Chop chop. Let's go. If I have to drag you both out of here by the ears I will."

I’d touched him and then I’d jumped away and when I came back I stumbled and fell backwards. Eddie was too close and moments before he’d been so much closer than that and it happened again and I didn’t know and didn’t understand and I fell back, gasping, before girl-Kim interrupted us.

When her voice cried out both of us jumped and broke away. For my part I was grateful for the interruption and to have a little bit of a break so I could figure out what was going on with me.

I had little time to contemplate before I was swept up in Hurricane girl-Kim, her arm looping into mine as she gestured at Eddie and ushered both of us out of the fantasy section and towards the bathrooms.

"Honestly you two," she went on as we walked, "I don't even want to know what you were planning out there in the stacks. You'll have plenty of time for a secret rendezvous later, we have a schedule to keep."

"I was-" Eddie protested but she cut him off with a tut. For my part I just blushed as she practically shoved him towards the guy's bathroom while she swept off with me into the girls.

Everyone else was apparently done changing, because the bathroom was empty when we walked in. The sound of the door closing behind me had a sense of finality and once we were in girl-Kim was secure in the knowledge that I wouldn't be distracted anymore so she moved to the mirror, preening herself in it while she left me to my own devices.

I had to change, but I'd be damned if I was going to do it in front of her.

Turning towards the stalls I yanked one open and closed it quick behind me. Divesting of my bag and hanging it up I struggled in the cramped space, barely even able to move as I slipped my hoodie over my head and grabbed the purple shirt that I'd been given, yanking it on over the t-shirt I was already wearing.

"Honey I don't want to pry," girl-Kim cooed from her place by the mirror, her voice dripping honey and such a stunning lack of sincerity that prying, I was sure, was what she absolutely wanted to do, "But I like to think of myself as more than just a guide. I like to think of this as a confidant thing, as guidance of a greater sort than just showing you where the bathrooms are."

I gave a non-committal grunt, hoping that would be enough, as I struggled with the clothes.

"I just know... well you know Eddie is a nice kid and all but he's clearly still a kid. You get guys out here in freshman year who are ready to be men and guys who are ready to be boys. As someone who has had their fair share of both, enough at least to offer some advice, trust me you should be looking for a man over a boy, you know?"

"I'm not-" I protested, but managed to jam the shirt down over my head at that point so my protests were mostly muffled and honestly even if they had been clear as day I don't know that would have dissuaded girl-Kim from going on.

"I'm just saying, Em. Now do you mind if I call you Em? Do you? I'm just saying that there are plenty of men out there in that group you've got. Men who are... manly... I'm sure I don't have to point out the difference to you. I'm sure you recognized it when you had your ‘hands on experience.’"

I could hear her smug grin, the little wistfulness in her voice that made me oh so certain that she was thinking of Blake in the same way she thought that I should be.

"When I couldn't find you I figured he'd be the one I caught you with, because make no mistake I knew you were going to be caught up with some boy somewhere. I can pick out the heartbreakers from a mile away. But you surprised me."

That was the moment I managed to burst out of the stall, purple shirt halfway down and the rest of me flushed half from embarrassment and half from indignation and a curse on my lips and a protest in my chest as I was ready to tell her off. But girl-Kim clearly wasn't going to hear any of it if I did.

"Over top of your shirt?" she tutted, "Really? Not the best choice, hun. But we don't have any more time so it will just have to do."

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