Intermission: Friends.

Grace walked with quick steps in front of her friends, going in a direction that was nowhere near the restroom on that floor. Her heart twisting painfully as she fought to keep a straight face. She turned right at the end of the hallway, coming into a dead end. Her friends followed her, and when they were out of sight, Grace threw herself at Mila and gave her a tight hug.

“I’m so, so fucking sorry!” she said, voice cracking from guilt.

“W-What? What are you talking about?” Mila asked, confused yet still hugging Grace back.

“I don’t know what came over us. Holy fuck. We’re awful friends!”

“We? Grace, what are you talking about?” Sarah asked.

Looking directly at Mila, Grace asked her, “Why didn’t you tell us you’ve been into Oliver for three fucking years, you dumb idiot!?”

“Wait, what!?” Sarah exclaimed, turning her incredulous gaze to Mila. “For three years!? Mila!?”

Mila opened and closed her mouth several times, no words coming out. She looked to the floor, to the ceiling, at and away from her friends before she finally spoke. “…I-I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Please, I’m not blind. It all makes too much sense,” Grace insisted. “How pushy and bold you were at the party, that you had no problems losing your virginity to him, the way you look at him, that you remember things about him from freshman year… You’ve liked him since then, I can tell. And we got in the fucking way!” Grace was almost crying at that point, somehow managing not to **** on her own words. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t know. But even so, I still… Urgh!”

“Holy shit,” Sarah sighed, holding her forehead. “You were talking to him at the party and we just started intruding… Almost stole him from you right under your nose, too! No wonder you got all bold. Why aren’t you furious? Seriously!”

Mila’s mouth grew dry and her heart beat loudly in her chest. Even her brain seemed to throb in her skull as it raced to come up with something to do, something to say. She’d been caught. She could continue to deny her feelings to them, but would that really be for the best? She took a deep breath and hugged Grace closer.

“I was in a different class from you two during freshman year,” she started, speaking softly. “I knew no one, so as you may imagine, it was a rough start. Guys came up to talk to me and flirt, and other girls got jealous of that. One day I found that some of them had thrown my backpack on the roof of the storage shed beside the soccer field. I went to get a janitor to help me get it down, but when we got back, we saw Oliver climbing down the roof with it. He handed it over without saying a word and… ran away.” Mila chuckled at the memory. “The janitor was yelling at him, saying it was dangerous and all that. I remember the look on Oliver’s face when he gave me my backpack. He looked angry. Like, really pissed. I thought he was angry at me, but if he was, then why did he get my backpack down from the roof? I didn’t understand, but I wanted to. From then on I just… started paying more attention to him. He barely spoke to anyone, but his name came up every once in a while in conversations. Many think he’s weird, but I’m also not the only one with a story like that, you know? He’s helped plenty of people without them asking. He was in the music club and I hear he was pretty good but left for some reason after the first semester. It seems he doesn’t get along very well with his sister, even though they’re twins. Weird, right? And now he got all fit during summer all of a sudden, but he’s so quiet that not many people have noticed.”

“Mila…” Grace started, but Mila talked over her.

“I don’t know if I could say I liked him, but I was… interested in him. For a while I was sure he was a pushover or one of those cringey dudes who think themselves all dark and mysterious, but even though he hardly speaks and people don’t approach him, the more I looked the less I believed that. I didn’t get him. Now I do a little bit more, and…” she smiled, “Now I can confidently say I really like him. I got scared when you two started making your moves on him, so I started doing it too. I don’t know what came over me that night, either. I don’t know what it is about him that makes me want to act so… bold. But I like it and I don’t regret it.”

“We’ll get out of your way,” Sarah said, putting a hand on Mila’s shoulder and giving her a wry smile. “So go back to him and ask him out properly, okay?” Grace nodded in agreement.

“No, you won’t,” Mila told them firmly.

“Ah? Yes we will,” Grace told her. “We promise.”

“No. You won’t,” Mila repeated. “You like him too, don’t you? Enough to be all chummy with a guy you barely know. Not like I know him much more, really, but still.”

Grace and Sarah shared uncertain looks.

“B-But we just like him because he’s hot and a monster in bed!” the brunette said.

“And the other guys you’ve dated had such great personalities, right?” Mila scoffed. “You’re the ones that say it’s alright to start a relationship on physical attraction alone. That everything else can come after and if it doesn’t work you just dump the guy.”

“Well, yes… But you’ve liked him since freshman year,” Sarah said. “On the other hand, we just want him for…”

“We had a foursome with him,” Mila said. “My very first time was a foursome. I’ve seen you making out with him in front of me. We’ve sucked his dick together. And for some damn reason it doesn’t make me jealous in the slightest. Does it bother you that I make out with him?”

Again, Grace and Sarah shared complicated expressions. “…Not really,” Sarah admitted.

“Listen. I could go to him right now and ask him out, but first I need you to answer this question. How would you feel if I could make out or even have sex with him but you couldn’t? I know it’d drive me absolutely nuts.”

The two other girls both winced, and realizing that they had, they kept quiet and looked away. Grace put a hand on her chest. There was a sting there that was different from the guilt she felt before.

Jealousy.

It was so, so dumb! She had known the guy for a few days. He was a nervous mess of a man. He spoke so little that it almost felt like talking to a wall. And yet…!

He was a beast in bed. Undoubtedly the best Grace had ever felt with someone. His touch made her shiver, his kisses made her melt, his dick stirred her up and made her feel things she didn’t know were possible. That, along with his looks, were enough for her to want to stay close to him. His **** silence would’ve been a huge turn off if Grace didn’t find his quirks… a little endearing.

Sharing him with Mila and Sarah was fun. Teasing him, kissing him, letting him touch them… it was fun and exciting, and managing to get him to talk to them felt strangely fulfilling. It was like overcoming the barriers with which Oliver was protecting himself. It pushed Grace into wanting to grab a sledgehammer and bring those barriers down. She wanted to see how he’d be when he could let himself relax around them.

Thinking of giving it all up and letting Mila have him to herself was… painful. By all rights it shouldn’t be, but it was. Sharing him was not only the better option, it felt like the only right option. But did the others feel the same as her?

“…I almost asked him out earlier today,” Sarah admitted with a groan. “He made me come, he looked so cute and hot and I was feeling so lightheaded! It was so good I almost asked him to be my boyfriend just so I could have an excuse to fuck him every day. But then Grace spoke and I came back to earth. Felt wrong trying to keep him to myself, so if Mila did it, I’d…” She grimaced. “I wouldn’t like it.”

Sarah was pretty much on the same boat as Grace. Oliver was a weird guy, but there was something alluring about him. Sex with him wasn’t normal. It was incredible. She had noticed it made her a little irrational, even. She shared him with Grace and Mila, for God’s sake! But it didn’t feel bad. It was fun and she wanted more. So much more. His silence was frustrating, yeah, but it made her want to drag him out of his shell, by **** if necessary. And on top of it all, Mila had a point. Sarah had gone out with guys over less.

“Then it’s simple,” Mila said. “We keep things as they are. Now that I’m finally starting to know him, I refuse to let him go. But at the same time, I have no reason for wanting you to step aside. It doesn’t bother me. Hell, Oliver obviously likes it!”

Grace tightened her embrace on Mila, her mind a little clearer and taking a break from killing her. “If you’re sure, then I don’t think I have the willpower to refuse,” she chuckled tiredly. “I’ve dated other guys. I’ve had sex with other guys. I liked them, of course, but this feels different. I can’t quite put it into words, but it’s… exciting.” She stepped away from her friend, smiling with relief and a couple of tears escaping her eyes. “But let me correct you on one thing. If we’re really doing this, we can’t exactly continue with things as they are.”

“Hm? How so?” Sarah asked.

“Well…” Grace grimaced with guilt, but now for an entirely different reason. “Oliver is probably wondering what the hell all of this is.”

“To be fair, Grace, WE don’t even know what this is,” Sarah said, scratching her head. “We just sort of… went with the flow, right?”

Grace nodded. “But unlike us, he’s probably thinking we’re just playing with him. And yeah, that’s pretty much what we’re doing.”

“Oh,” Mila and Sarah exclaimed. “S-Should we ask him out, then? Like, ask him to be our boyfriend?” Mila asked nervously.

“Not yet,” Grace said with a small smile. “I bet it will only confuse him more. Weird feelings aside, we’re practically strangers to each other. I say we get serious, I want to get serious, but let’s go at it slowly. Let’s get to know him to make sure he’s worth it, but let’s make sure he also knows us. No boyfriend and girlfriends yet, but we could ask him to hang out outside of school so long as we don’t call them dates.”

“That’s still going to confuse him. Hell, it would confuse the hell out of me,” Mila said.

Putting on a bad male voice and messing with her hair, Sarah exclaimed, “Gah! Why are three girls asking me out!? What’s happening here!?”

Mila started laughing at that. “Was that supposed to be Oliver? Sounds nothing like him.”

Sarah shrugged. “I bet he sounds like that in his own head. Anyway, I can’t think of something better, so let’s go with what Grace says. No more aimlessly fooling around. I’m also willing to get serious about him, because that hunch I had back at the party still hasn’t gone away. HOWEVER, I should also stress that if we’re doing this, we should be patient. Problems as serious as his don’t get fixed in a couple of days. Ask my parents if you don’t believe me.”

Grace nodded. “We really need to get him to open up to us.” She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes, serious. “I say we continue being flirty and all. It could just be me, but he looks a lot more confident during sex. But it won’t be good to overwhelm him, either. Mmm, then again, it’s not like we have all the time in the world. Urgh, this is difficult.”

“You’re raring to go, aren’t you?” Mila said, half-jokingly.

“Hey, I walked out of that room ready to give him up. I certainly didn’t expect things to develop this way, and I’m not wasting this chance for something… I don’t know what it is, but I feel like this relationship has some insane potential. It’s that hunch Sarah was talking about. I’ve been tiptoeing around the idea, but if I’m doing this, I’m going all out. You two damn better keep up with me.”

“Oh, don’t worry about me,” Sarah grinned. “If I half ass something like this, my parents would give me shit even in my dreams.”

“How does a month sound?” Mila asked. “We give him a month to show some progress. If you think whatever progress he’s showing is not enough, then you can quit.”

Grace and Sarah both nodded in agreement. “Give him a month to improve, but commit to stick along for just as long. Sounds fair to me.” Grace said.

The tension left their anxious bodies as they shared genuine, relieved laughter. These three had known each other for a long time. Sharing a boyfriend had never crossed their minds. But this time?

What the hell. It sounded fun, so why not? It was worth a try.

Author's Note: No chapter tomorrow since this is the length of two normal chapters combined. Next update coming on Monday.

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