A bit of PDA and unexpected side effects.

It didn’t end with the first recess. Like I said, word spread fast, and by lunch break, practically everybody at school knew. All eyes were on us while we tried to eat our lunch in peace at the cafeteria.

…

Well, not exactly. Noelle and I were the only ones who felt awkward under the gazes. Alice seemed to find it amusing while Mila, Grace and Sarah were thoroughly enjoying it.

“Say ‘aaah’,” Mila told me, as she fed me a tiny sausage from her own lunch.

My cheeks burned, the multitude of eyes watching weighed heavily on me, but dammit I was gonna eat that sausage if it was the last thing I did.

“Aaah.”

When I ate it, Mila giggled giddily again.

“Are you planning on letting him eat his own lunch?” Thomas asked her from his seat across from me at our table.

“He’s a growing boy. He needs to eat a lot,” Grace told him. She was sitting to my left and held a cherry tomato with her fingers for me to eat. Of course I ate it, too, but feeling Grace’s fingers on my lips made me dizzy. It was too damn much.

“Give it a rest. You’re killing him,” Isabelle told them. “He likes it, but you’re killing him.”

“Yeah,” Thomas agreed. “I’m happy that you guys no longer have to hide, but you’re going a little bit overboard with the PDA.” He looked around the cafeteria and sighed. “You girls have your fans, remember? I see some of them seething already.”

“And if you continue, we’ll get scolded by the teachers,” Alice added. “There aren’t any policies against dating, but still.”

“It could be worse, you know?” Sarah said, smirking devilishly.

“That doesn’t mean this is okay,” Noelle told her, nervously looking around as well. “We’re making people uncomfortable.”

“Alright, I have to ask,” Thomas said, resting his arms on the table, leaning forward and whispering. “This… What did you do to make this happen? Why aren’t people freaking out more?”

We stopped and tensed up.

“You can tell something's off, too?” Isabelle asked Thomas. “Like, people aren’t shocked that you guys are in a poly relationship. They’re shocked that Alice has a boyfriend at all.”

The president blushed bashfully. “Is it that weird?”

“You usually turn down every guy who asks you out on a date,” Isabelle told her. She then chuckled. “They’re saying it took the hottest guy in school to win you over.”

Excuse me? “Hah!?”

Alice’s eyebrows shot up. “T-That’s not why I…! Ugh, I mean he is, but…!”

Thomas laughed. “I’ve been beat! I used to hold that title, but I guess you’re a worthy successor, my friend.”

“Shut up,” I told him. “I’m not…”

“You are,” Mila, Grace, Sarah and even Noelle said in unison. I had **** but to shut up.

“I’ve also been hearing some stuff,” Thomas continued. “Things like ‘that guy actually tamed that trio of troublemakers’.”

My jaw dropped. “T-Tamed…?”

“Not completely wrong,” Sarah said, shrugging it off. “Grace in particular has chilled out a lot.”

“I guess,” Grace herself admitted, sighing. “I’ve had to keep a lower profile, but I got used to it already.”

Isabelle turned to Alice. “And they’re also saying that it makes sense that you and Noelle have been hanging out with this group now. Still, it seems they don’t know what to make of it. Some say are you’re getting corrupted, others that it’s proof that Mila, Grace and Sarah have been ‘tamed’, as Thomas said.”

“They need to mind their own damn business,” I spat. Seriously, hearing all this stuff was beginning to piss me off.

“I agree, but it’s how things work here,” Thomas told me.

“The point is that no one seems to care that Oliver is dating five girls,” Isabelle said. “And even I kinda… How do I put it? It’s like I know it’s not a big deal, but I remember that it should be.”

“Yeah, exactly!” Thomas agreed. “How come? Does it have something to do with what we talked on the rooftop the other day?”

I sighed. “...Yes. I’ll give you the details later.” I turned to Isabelle. “And… I’ll tell you everything tonight, after I’m home from work.”

Isabelle frowned, but seemed to understand that this was serious and didn’t comment any further.

I thought I should’ve been more worried about this finding, but I wasn’t. Thomas and Isabelle were both aware that something had changed while no one else seemed to realize it. Why was that? Could it be because they knew the girls and I were dating before Frey let her magic happen? It was possible. Maybe the spell wasn’t all powerful and it had its limitations. If that was the case, there were only three other people who knew. Thomas said he’d speak to Kevin and Ben to see how they reacted. As for the third person, I’d get the chance to see what she thought later that day.

At first I thought I was imagining things, but when all the tables at the coffee shop were full on a Thursday, Maria and I had to admit something strange was happening.

“Was there some kind of event around here or something?” she asked me as we were finally able to catch a break from serving customers.

“Not that I know of,” I told her.

“It’s mostly girls your age, too…” Maria said. She looked at me with a disapproving look. “What have you been up to, young man?”

“N-Nothing! What WOULD I be up to?”

“You aren’t leading all these girls on, are you?

“Of course not! It’s just… people at school found out I’m d-dating five girls.”

Maria’s eyebrows shot up and she covered her mouth in shock. “FIVE!? I thought there were only three! Why didn’t you tell me!?”

“I had to tell you?”

“Of course! I love gossip!” She giggled and lightly elbowed me in the ribs. “You’re such a ladies man!”

“I swear I didn’t plan for it to turn out this way…” I said, sighing tiredly.

“Hmm, then are all these girls…?”

The moment one of the tables became available, another group of girls from my school entered. It was my turn to wait on them, so off I went.

“Welcome,” I greeted them with a polite smile as they sat down, putting all the cups and plates from the previous group on a tray to carry them. “I’ll be right back to take your orders.”

I took the cups and plates back, wiped the table and took out my notepad. I took the others of the first three before the fourth one, a senior from Isabelle’s class, I think, went and smiled at me with some serious bedroom eyes.

“I want to know if the waiter is available for a date this Sunday,” she said.

A chill ran down my entire body, but I couldn’t tell you if it felt good or bad. It was extremely weird. She was a slender brunette with a moderately sized chest and faint asian features. Regardless…

“The waiter is already in a relationship,” I told her with a small, wry smile.

“I’m sure you can ask your girlfriends for permission, no?” The girl sexily bit her lower lip. “If you can keep those five all happy, then one more couldn’t hurt, could it? Come on. I promise you’ll have a great time with me.”

Yeah, no, this definitely felt good, and that was a bad thing.

A very bad thing.

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